#its really multi faceted and comes from a lot of different like... perspectives i guess???

[sapphicvevo]

re: on shiro, favoritism, lance and hunk, and s2

@gayofthewild this was such a good question that i put a lot of thought into, and i ended up making a really long ass reply that was originally gonna just be a reply in the photo posting part of tumblr, but i figured i’d make it into a text post so i can read more it  because it got REALLY LONG and just so i can talk about it in depth like i wanted to! 

but to be super clear, i agree with you whole heartedly!!!! it really IS hard to tell when it’s an actual character flaw or a writing one, especially when it comes to voltron, especially on this particular topic with shiro’s treatment towards lance and hunk in season 2. 

for a while i didn’t have a really concrete opinion about this other than that ‘yes this is a really shitty aspect about shiro’s character and should be discussed but i dont know if i really like how it’s being discussed in the fandom right now’. because a lot of it at the time was really black and white, and while a lot of the discussions about racism and pedophilia in this fandom isn’t black and white and never will be, this one is a little trickier imo.

talking about shiro’s favortism towards pidge and keith, which like, yes it’s canon he holds a certain favortism towards them and it’s expected because shiro feels a sort of obligation and guilt towards pidge because he knew her father and brother and w as there when they all got separated, and he’s here now and they’re still missing and he’s left taking care of his crew’s daughter and younger sister so he’s going to feel a certain extra level of care and compassion for her. and shiro and keith had a relationship  before the kerberos mission, a very influential one if keith’s “without you i’d be someone very different today” has anything to say about it. which also makes a lot of sense imo why he’d tell keith he wants him to take over the black paladin considering he’s known him longer, even though allura is definitely more qualified to be black paladin off of skill and leadership capabilities at the time alone.

but shiro’s still the leader, even though he never may have wanted to be, considering he’s the oldest amongst all these teenagers. he still has an obligation to lance, hunk, and allura to consider their capabilities, their opinions, and everything else when it comes to voltron, because as he said in the first episode they’re a team and everyone’s influence is important in order to make a team work in the best way. so shiro automatically dismissing hunk, lance, or even allura for certain things isn’t what a leader is supposed to do, especially considering how OPPOSITE of that shiro was in season 1. (minus shiro not listening to hunk’s suspicion about rolo, which is really the only instance i can think of right now of shiro dismissing the three of them in season 1)

but here’s where it gets messy because season 2 treated lance, hunk, and allura POORLY. (i’d say they also screwed over shiro and keith for angst and to follow a certain plot line instead of how the characters would actually react based on s1 characterizations, but that’s a post for another day maybe, but the season still focused on them and pointed them in the right for the entire season so that’s like.. DEFINITELY for another post lol). lance was treated as comic relief, dumbed down to make pidge look smarter, barely there and barely had any characterization besides being flirty, one episode, and like 5 seconds of touching on his insecurities before getting over it (and that’s until season 3 proves otherwise). hunk was ignored, dumbed down also to make pidge look smarter also, and had so many fat jokes and talked about food i can barely remember lines where he wasn’t talking about it (also got CHAINED to a fucking kitchen. AND PEOPLE TRIED TO DEFEND IT ON WHY IT WASN’T NASTY). allura was treated horribly too. she had a storyline where she had distrust and anger towards a group of the universe’s oppressors who DESTROYED her entire planet and people and was treated as the impossible one throughout it. she was told that ‘not all galra’ bullshit, yelled at by characters while not even considering her side, and treated like she was being unreasonable for being cautious because the last time her people trusted the galra…. they blew up her entire planet. and instead of a conversation between her and keith where they both tried to understand the other’s point of view to come together to find a mutual ground, she apologized to keith where keith didn’t say anything about how he could’ve understood where she was coming from.

so when people criticize shiro for dismissing lance and hunk in season 2, i wanna agree really badly! i wanna be like YES HE FUCKING DID AND IT SHOULD BE CALLED OUT. but we also gotta remember that shiro isn’t his own person and he’s being written by white people who thought all of the above shit was okay. so i totally understand why you’d get confused because for a long time i was confused about this topic also. but i think this is where it comes down to season 3.

here’s how in my opinion that shiro dismissing lance and hunk can be considered a character flaw if it’s written well in season 3: the show actually acknowledges that shiro holds favortism for pidge and keith. lance, hunk, and allura discuss this with him. shiro, who’s a character who’s known to be understanding, calm, and receptive takes it into their consideration, considers what they’re saying, has a conversation about it, and realizes that they have a point and explains his side as well. they consider each other’s view points mutually, because if shiro is ignoring them i really don’t think that it’s intentionally or out of malicious contempt for them. they understand each other, apologize to each other, and shiro works on this while still maintaining his relationships with keith and pidge because it’s human to feel closer to other people, while hunk, lance and allura feel comfortable, respected and heard within the team, and they understand why shiro is the way he is.

but if they never bring this up while continuing to paint lance, hunk, or allura as the unreasonable ones? i’d definitely consider it a writing flaw to be quite honest instead of a character one.

as of right now, i wouldn’t be opposed to people calling it a mix of both because all we really have right now is season 2 to base this all off of. i just think people should be careful when criticizing shiro about this as a character by calling him a terrible leader or purposefully hating lance, hunk, or allura by saying he’s purposefully hurting lance when lance has never in canon come to him about this particular problem, because in season 2 shiro was also the only one to compliment lance about his sharpshooting skills and recognize his importance to team voltron.  

tldr: season 2 is a mess and the writers are even MESSIER. when criticizing shiro for ignoring lance, hunk, and allura and their treatment in season 2 it should really also be acknowledged of the writers influence to how he’s written in response to these characters and their interactions, but in no way am i defending it.

[shinjukuspiritcommittee]

Spirit Committee Mod’s Christmas Gift to you

So back earlier this year when I first started this blog, one of the first ever requests I received was a question asking me “What were my 20 favorite Housamo characters?” At first I really didn’t have an answer since I was trying to reintroduce myself to the cast, but now that I’ve ingrained myself into the community a decent bit I can give you guys what I look for in a Housamo character as my thanks to all of you for just enjoying my content really. I look for what appeals to me visually (I’m the kinda writer that likes em big and beefy) but also well written. While not every character may or may not be the best written character since there’s so much reading I have to go back and do, but I am comfortable 20 characters I find to be downright great.

My Top 10~20 Housamo Characters

Honorable Mentions: Characters who do definitely qualify in the Top 20, but are just simply hard to place exactly in a definitive slot (lists like these are pretty hard to write for in hindsight…)

~Aegir: This is a character that’s very hard to place for a few different reasons. On one hand he’s easily one of the more aesthetically pleasing characters to me and I don’t just mean his body. There’s just always something about outfits in Housamo that just look amazing and I think Aegir’s is one of the better ones because they both show off his best assets and are pretty snazzy. His color scheme in most of his outfits tend to say hes an ocean man and I like you can just tell by looking at him given the whites and blues along with the gold he adorns himself with. Sort of what you’d expect from a treasure hunter such as himself. And yes he is a total heart throb alongside that I do have a bit of Gacha bias here and for the next one since I have all variants of them and some really good artwork. On the other hand, what do I know about him? Well, he’s a pretty boisterous fellow who loves to show off and is a big man. What else? Um…. Unfortunately Aegir’s events aren’t fully translated and his voice lines and bio do leave a bit to be desired for me at least. When it comes to writing him I have no issues, but when it comes to trying to visualize him as a character among the vast cast it just becomes hard to give him a good place beyond “He has a nice chest and bulge” most of the time. It’s not anything personal and my opinion of him may change after this Christmas event is over and translated by the Housamo Blogspot and GomTang is one of my favorite artists working with LifeWonders so he may get bumped up or off. As an additional upside I do like how his gameplay in both of his variants reflect his character, it’s a nice touch game designers often do.

~Takemaru: Yes, both 2019 Christmas boys. And yes, it’s because of their tiddies. I’m mostly kidding… But in all seriousness Takemaru is one of the better offensive supports in the game who’s one of the easier units to pull in the gacha, especially right now considering he has an alt on the banner so in theory he should be showing up more frequently as a 3star. But that’s just a theory. The thing with Takemaru I like beyond his design is the fact with how genuine sweet he is as a character. He’s rough in how he speaks but his personality is very sincere (for the most part from what I can gather) However he falls into the same trap as Aegir since I haven’t read the events he’s a part of just yet. Plus he is a crafter boy and you never say no to a Crafter.

~Kengo: One of two Summoners on this list. I have a bit more preference for Kengo over the other summoner that did make the list, but to be as fair as I can in my judgment I have to leave Kengo in the 11-20 pile. Visually he has all the check boxes that just draw me to a character initially and his personality is simple, but I like that he’s simple. Characters don’t always need to be complex and multi faceted to be engaging, plus I just kinda want someone who would encourage me to be more active and I feel a few characters alongside Kengo would do that, he’s a Chad and a bro. So why is he not in the inner circle for this list? It’s cuz the story treats him the worst. What do I mean? deep breath If you’ve read Chapter 3 of the main story then you should know the absolute mess it is. It tries to shove in as many characters as possible during this part of the story which, okay understandable since this is a gacha game but they forgot to give Kengo, you know one of the cover boys, a proper role in the story and it really feels LifeWonders thought that they could bank on Kengo’s Himbo status and just showing us the others. But I need sustenance. I need to read! He did because he has moments that could have been much more if they just shifted the focus back on Kengo for more than a few moments at a time and he sort of highlights a lot of my issues with the way the stories are told in this game but those are for another time.

~Arc: In my perspective, the antithesis to Kengo. Not to say I find Arc visually unappealing, but they aren’t for me the way other characters are though. As a character though Arc’s story is honestly one of the best stories has to offer and they actually have (pardon my pun) an arc. I won’t spoil too much of their story because it’s all pretty late into the game but you really do sympathize with Arc and begin to understand the larger narrative the game has. Plus a nice detail is that Arc’s voice lines change depending on the point of the story you’re in I guess? Or maybe it was a release thing I’m not too sure how you trigger one over the other but they get 2 sets of lines. And they actually integrate Arc into the story and revolving cast pretty well instead of casting them to the wayside for 80% of their story. I can’t go much deeper than that unfortunately. All I can say is read Chapter 7 and 8 but do know that they are some of the more darker and serious chapters in the game so far.

~Durga: The only Yoyogi girl who strives to be number one. Unfortunately she joined the wrong list and wound up in the runner up tier. But for starters Durga has one of my favorite voice actresses who plays a number of my favorite characters in anime and games so I’m glad LifeWonders are capable of getting such talented voice work. As a character I know what this character is mostly about and the event I haven’t really read yet is her initial one so when that gets an official TL I’ll read it to grow more understanding. But from what I have now I can safely put her as one of my favorites because her drive to be number one is inspiring to try your best and everyone should follow her example to some degree. I say that because she really does feel naturally flawed given her alleged age. I won’t spoil much of Dreamland but I will say how Durga’s struggle is further amplified is totally understandable given her position in the group of athletes and her desire to always win and why she always pushes herself to be her best at any cost and it’s definitely something I can see someone doing (without as catastrophic a breakdown when it backfires and just learning what works best for her). As for why she’s not in the other category given my praise of her character is because I don’t have the full story much like with a few prior entries on the list. But when that event does get a TL at some point I do want to read it and finally have the full picture for her so I can rank her properly.

~Kyuma: I shall dub him my Kouhai because he is a first year. A lot of people don’t like Kowmei’s art, myself included, but overall his characters don’t really put me off that much since there’s only one in particular. Kyuma’s good though. He is a good, hardworking kouhai I’d enjoy being around given he seems the most levelheaded of his friends despite his age.  Or maybe its because of his age? There’s no grand singular reason he’s on this part of the list. He just needs to be in more events and get an actual alt. That’s all.

~Zao: I wish he was introduced in a better event because he is one of the better characters released in year one. But good lord does his event drag you through the dirt with terrible battles and awful pacing. It’s unfortunate his whole story is dragged down because the game was still in an early spot when this event originally came out. Outdated gameplay aside I think Zao does best in setting the precedent for shop units when it comes to writing and design. I like his arc going from a stubborn mountain man to a more open and accepting person. However he has a similar issue with Kengo where he has to share his spotlight with characters of varying degrees but unlike Kengo the other characters who appear in this event are meant to compliment Zao rather than detract from him.

~Amatsumara: He’s the dad of the Crafters and is who makes the Crafters really feel like a family. Every member feels like they have a role in the Guild and you can really see how much Amatsumara values them. He just seems like the doting father type who gives you noogies and I can respect that. Seeing him interact with characters in Chapter 9 was also one of the more enjoyable aspects of that chapter. I won’t spoil it but it was pretty good.

For the final 2 they’re just characters who’s designs I like a lot and just need to do more research since this game has a lot of characters to try and find information on

~Dagon

~Tomte

And yes, its cuz they’re cute and new. I am shallow… ;u;

Now for the Top 10 favorites, but even then placement can change depending on what LifeWonders plans to do with them down the line.

10. Gunzo: Kicking off this list is the rugby player himself. To start he’s a very dorky athlete. He isn’t the greatest at handling social situations and kind of a goofball when it comes down to it. But those are not bad things, in fact they’re what landed him on the list. His quirkiness is just plain adorable and I do enjoy the antics he and his classmates get into. Not only that but he’s a pretty laid back guy once you get to know him a bit better. It’s his lack of awareness that is his best strength, but worst weakness at times.

9. Kurogane: deep breath ANIKI~!!! Jokes aside Kurogane is the character that when I first saw, I was very disappointed he wasn’t playable. (Then GoGo happened and made me one happy person) and he’s voiced by the same guy who did Broly back in the day so that’s pretty awesome. Kurogane actually likes it a lot when you call him “Big Bro” and I would totally call him that once I found out he did because he’s so wholesome and goodwilled. Plus he does deserve some recognition as someone older since he is the youngest in his Guild. Not only that I can sort of relate to Kurogane’s desire at being an engineer since when I was still attending classes in college that was what I was studying as my major. I can’t quite match the same level of enthusiasm as Kurogane, I do see where his character does come from when tackling certain things, which is how he easily became one of my favorites.

8. Claude: You want a sugar daddy? Claude is probably your guy. So the leader of the Berserkers Guild is a great guy, most of the time. He has his moments where he can get carried away with his own desires rather than doing the correct thing, but honestly there’s something satisfying about a man just taking what he wants. That and well, getting a bit of a wake up call that you can’t just do all of that because you’re bored. His character quest is what really sold me on Claude as a character and something about it felt very real. A lot of it was very vague terminology and confirms Claude’s status as a bottom. Claude is also very intelligent and he’s always trying to make the best move that will benefit the most amount of people, whether or not its for his own interests usually. Also this wouldn’t be your mod if I didn’t mention how good he looks, especially his outfits. Bombom just really knows how to design clothes.

7. Moritaka: Arguably the face of the franchise right after Salomon. Moritaka, to my knowledge, is one of the most popular Housamo characters and to be frank I can see why he would hold that title. He’s just a lovable character with cute art. I really think I show my love for him in my Headcanons so I’ll keep it brief by saying he’s a really enjoyable character.

6. Maria: Our local Lesbian sister will help you find true love, I promise. Maria is another really popular and well-liked character and again I can totally see why. She’s cute as a button and really compassionate towards everyone she meets. And from what I’ve seen from her, Maria is very honest with herself going forward from a certain point which is so satisfying to see. I won’t spoil her entire arc even though her chapters have been out for a while just so you can experience it for yourself. She’s too precious for me to spoil. But her character growth aside, she’s a very compassionate and kind character even to those who aren’t the most kind in return and she even goes out of her way to try and relate to those characters despite the fact they might not make sense.

5. Hephaestus: Here we have my son, please buy him Legos instead of Mega Bloks or he’ll cry. I was a little hesitant with Hephaestus at first to be blunt. He seemed to be quite crude in certain places and really uncaring and a little cliché with his attitude. Plus he’s quite nasty to Talos, often times getting mad at Talos for simply doing what he was made to do. But Chapter 9 really put it into perspective. For spoilers I can’t say what made me turn around from wanting to look away from wanting to just hold him and protect him. All I can say is that he has been put through the wringer and just deserves to be happy.

4. Ashigara: Best bear, Volos stans don’t come for me. I explained it before but Ashigara is a character that tends to radiate “me” energy and I can totally see us being friends in real life. He’s the kind of guy who’d send you memes when your sad but he’d eat all your food, which is why you were sad in the first place. All about give and take.

3. Oniwaka: A bully BF uwu god have mercy but yes. Oniwaka was actually my first ever Housamo summon when I first began to play and on my most recent account (I’ve been on and off with the series until I started this blog and became more of a permanent player) he was my first 5star unit so it weirdly came full circle with him. His alternate skins are an absolute delight to behold and he is no slouch in the writing department after the slog that was Chapter 3. If anything he just got better with each appearance. He was rough around the edges, but seeing his softer sides just warms your heart.

2. Wakan Tanka: Touching down at silver place is my “Housamo Husbando”. Weird I know but let me explain. Wakan Tanka is a character I very much love and cherish, he is a really cute boy who just wants to do good by everyone he meets. He hates treating people especially different which is societal goals. However, he has a tendency to come off as a bit too perfect. While I really like him, he’s also feels more like an ideal than someone who can actually develop and grow. Wakan has basically achieved ascention. As for the top place on this list though…

1. Taurus Mask/Daisuke Ikusaba: Much like how Oniwaka was my first pull, Daisuke was my first Housamo crush. First and foremost his design is what I consider to be very tasteful. It’s both an incredibly attractive outfit, it’s also very appropriate and it isn’t too distracting. Second I love how LifeWonders leans into a character completely and just goes all out with a number of references to their lore or culture. Since Daisuke is a luchador inspired character its really cool to see his Summon Day be May 5th. Thirdly and finally, his writing as a character completely wins me over. He is a shy senior by day, but wrestling prodigy by night. Not only is that badass, but you have the perfect set up and the writer in me squeaks like a little fan girl that I am. Wrestling was never really my thing growing up so while I don’t have any fondness for it in particular, if I had seen Taurus Mask in action you would see me in the crowd shouting for him. Daisuke is just that amazing and why he’s my Number 1 favorite Housamo character.

[bhandarimarblekishangarh]

Granite That Mesmerize your home

Each and every year, stone and tile trends change constantly in the architectural and design communities and can be difficult to keep up with. We at Contemporary Stone & Tile Design magazine wanted to get opinions from different architects and designers around the country to find out what they are seeing, and what they expect to see. Before getting into the trends they are seeing, let’s spend a little time getting to know those who are about to answer:

Lori Wiles— “I’m a true Midwesterner, born and raised in Missouri, now living in Iowa. Growing up, I spent lots of time in the working barns and classic farm houses in my rural area. My capable and creative mom gave me ample opportunity to draw, paint, sew and build things for fun. That led to a degree in interior design and a long career in the field. I’ve always been especially interested in interior architecture and how it impacts the people who use the spaces. My interior design firm specializes in planning new construction and re-modelling with the end user experience in mind.”

Ryan Thewes— “I grew up in Southern Indiana and graduated from Ball State University. After graduation, I was fortunate to get a job in Chicago, IL, working for a former Frank Lloyd Wright apprentice –

Don Erickson. The incredible experience of working for Don introduced me to the theories of Wright’s organic architecture which, amon

g many other things, focused on the use of natural materials and the creation of space. I expanded on my education of organic

architecture by also working for Robert Green, a former Frank Lloyd Wright apprentice in Atlanta, GA, and eventually an apprenticeship with Bart Prince in Albuquerque, NM. I am currently practicing out of Nashville, TN.”

Maxim Nasab— “I am the principal and founder of Apexx Architecture, a firm specializing in bridge architecture and recreational piers. Our firm is located in Tallahassee, FL. I am originally from Montréal, Canada. I got into architecture because it allowed me to pursue my love of science and technology, but also allowed my creativity to flourish. Architecture has the power to change cities for the better for generations. It is a profession that can truly make the world a better place and architects have the responsibility to ensure this through their designs.

I believe in designing for the people and the greater good rather than fame or recognition. I believe that great architecture is derived from honesty and transparency. Using local natural materials and allowing the structural system to express itself by integrating it within the design. Whenever I walked in buildings, and even today, I always tried to guess the materials that buildings were structurally supported by. It always made me a little sad when materials were not honest or true, or the structure was not evident. This is one reason why I went into bridge architecture. It is very hard to hide the structure of a bridge, and instead I always try to enhance its visibility, express its beauty and make it clear to the user as to how it is supported. Anyone should be able to walk in.”

Charmaine Wynter— “I am Jamaican Canadian, and an international multi-awarded interior designer with projects spanning the residential and hospitality sector. My natural design talent began to make its emergence in 1981, surprising family and friends, but it wasn’t until the late 1980s that I took it seriously and enrolled in an interior design program at a recognized college. I founded my design firm in Toronto, Canada in 1996; and later transitioned to the Dallas, TX, location in 2016, where it is now headquartered. Now many decades post-graduation, as principle designer, I jet back and forth to work projects of interest on both sides of the Canadian and U.S. boarders — infusing each with my signature distinctive luxurious living design aesthetics.”

Dawn D. Totty— “I started 25 years ago and it was fast and furious in New York. When I transitioned from there to the south, I was 1,000 miles away. I had to start from scratch. I had to reinvent myself. That was challenging.”

Trends with stone

One of the first things I discussed with each of our participants were the trends they were seeing with stone in particular. Over the years, the popularity of engineered stone has fluctuated, while natural stone seems to be extremely popular with some people rather than others. According to Wiles, she is seeing more people interested in using stone in their homes and offices than even a few years ago. “From my perspective, it’s become easier than ever to find the perfect material for any project with all of the stones available,” she said. “I particularly like the uniformly colored stones at the extremes of light and dark palettes. These make a great statement and give some confidence that a color palette can change through the years without having to change the large areas of stone.”

Wiles isn’t the only one that sees the popularity in natural stone. Thewes, Nasab and Wynter all agree with her. “What I have been seeing is a lot of natural materials, natural colors and natural tones,” said Nasab. “Limestone is really popular along with granites that have that limestone look. Minimalism and honesty in materials is coming back strong and will be here to stay for a while. Clients and users are craving that real feeling when they touch materials, which is why a lot of the companies are working hard to mimic that look and feel. Some of them are getting really close, too.”

Thewes is seeing a lot more requests for stone as the popularity of “Mid-Century Modern” design continues to rise. “I think part of this is because people still want modern design, but are turned off by the cold sterile nature of some of it,” he said. “The use of natural materials like wood and stone help soften the design yet allow us to keep a strong modern aesthetic. Linear stacked stone complements these types of projects perfectly by emphasizing the horizontal line and providing a defined texture that works well in opposition to smooth surfaces like wood, glass and drywall. Depending on the budget, we have had some pretty good success with engineered stone. However, for the more discerning client, it is tough to beat natural stone. While the wide range of colors are still often used and will never go out of style, we are seeing more of a request for darker colors. Almost black in some cases.”

Wynter is seeing popularity with quartz surfacing because of its look and durability. “Quartz is extremely popular with clients seeking a marble look, but the durability only provided by engineered stones,” said Wynter. “Stone is such a luxe material with its many faceted sheens and textures that there are trends within a trend. However, in general, I’m using more cool-toned hues with larger veining and fissure movement within the stone than a few years ago.”

Totty sees it not only with natural stone but also with quartz, because of how they look. “Patterns, movement and more color is making its way into the realm of interior design with the usage of quartz and marble being the forerunners,” said Totty. “Stone pigments that are currently trending are soft greens, grays and neutrals that are a wonderful complement to today’s interior design trends.”

When it comes to application of stone, according to Wynter, it is being more of the norm with her clients. “What’s great is that as the use of luxury stones are becoming more the norm, my clients are relaxing and spaces are more often taking on a casual luxe style,” said Wynter. “I’m using stone on the flooring, countertops and backsplashes, fireplace facades, accent walls and in outdoor living rooms.”

“While fireplaces continue to be the place that people think of using stone first, I like to incorporate stone in lots of areas in a home like kitchens and bathroom,” said Wiles. “In commercial settings, a stone wall or columns are a fairly easily constructed feature that suggests stability and permanence.  I’ll consider using it in any area that I think needs a great visual weight to help balance out the space.”

For Thewes, he is seeing the most common use for stone is in accent walls for both residential and commercial projects. “The ability to light the walls really accentuates the texture and draws attention to the feature,” said Thewes. “This is very effective in commercial projects where traditionally, more sterile and simple materials are used. The stone offers a good break from these materials while also providing a durable and maintenance-free surface.”

For Nasab, he is seeing stone used primarily for exterior paving, stairs and plazas. “It really enhances the site and gives it that extra touch of beauty, especially when it’s a natural stone,” he said.

Totty is utilizing marble and granite in big ways, such as installing it onto kitchen walls for a bold and elegant statement. “Kitchen larders, countertops, backsplashes and even floors are some of my favorite uses for granite, quartz and marble,” said Totty. “Both commercial and residential projects are now implementing stone surfaces to create a regal look with the benefit of durability.”

Tile Design Trends

When it comes to designing with tile, it seems that the material is a lot like stone, especially for Totty. “Floor-to-ceiling tiled walls in kitchens and bathrooms, and even laundry rooms, are very popular,” she said. “In many cases, the tile is the dominating focal point to a room’s decor.”

According to Nasab, whose area of expertise is not tile, he has noticed that tiles have continued to evolve and currently they are still hitting strong with mimicking the look of natural stone.

One thing that stands out to Thewes with tiles are the extremes they go to with size. “Tile size trends have continued to swing away from the standard 12- x 12-inch tile to either extreme,” said Thewes. “Either very small or very large, depending on the application. For our projects, we still focus on the more earthy and muted colors that are more simple and less busy. Black and white are timeless and can be adapted to any style or aesthetic so they are always popular.

“There has been a pretty significant rise in the popularly of the wood plank tiles that gives the look of a wood floor, but the durability of tile,” Thewes went onto say. “I tend to shy away from materials that pretend to be something they are not, but I have seen a quite a few of these fake wood products that are very well done.”

Wiles has also noticed the different types and feels of tile that are currently on the market. “I continue to be amazed at how many tile designs there are and excited about the tactile finishes they have now,” said Wiles. “We’re seeing our client’s willingness to use a variety of shapes like hexagons, octagons and circles increase. They’re now open to shapes that would have been unheard of just a few years ago. It also seems that tile manufacturers have become really in tune with current color palettes and color palette projections, which helps designers use their products more easily.”

“Tiles are dimensional and showing up in large formats,” said Wynter. “Pattern is back after a long rest so we are embracing lace, ethnic and graphic print on wall and floor tile. Keep your eyes peeled for hues of green and coral — especially this year.”

As far as applications go, according to Wiles, “Beautifully tiled bathrooms are the number one request from homeowners so we’re designing fully tiled showers, tub surrounds and backsplashes. The development of the really large-scaled and textural tiles that mimic other materials makes feature walls a big hit as well.”

Wynter said that tile will always be the strongest in commercial applications due to its durability and resilient nature, but it is making strong headway into the residential arena as the popularity for outdoor backyard oasis’ increase. Totty agrees with Wynter in the outdoor use of tile. “Outdoor kitchens are now showcasing tiled areas for durability, as well as aesthetics,” said Totty. “Tile is still the first choice for most home and commercial installations, in particular, shower walls and floors, laundry and mud rooms, as well as entryways for low maintenance and easy clean-up.”

“For tile, floors are still the main use,” said Thewes. “Occasionally, we will see an accent wall or something similar executed, but mainly floors and shower surrounds are most popular.”

Trends moving forward

Finally, we asked these architects and designers about the trends moving forward for both stone and tile.

Totty– “Tile with graphic, bold patterns and colors are quite favorable and are being used as statement makers in powder rooms, kitchen floors and laundry rooms to create that ‘wow’ factor in interior design. Granite and marble with movement are now used as art. Matching up patterned seams and placed vertically on walls in high-end hotel lobbies creates an amazing show stopping affect to any wall.”

Wynter— “Green is coming on strong as a trend color that has made it to classic status, so I predict we will see green marbles, green granites in all hues from glass to jade, as of green slates.”

Nasab— “I believe that natural colors will stay for a while, especially in stone. It is hard to beat natural stone, especially now that it has become much more affordable. What I am seeing in tile is black and whites coming back. That modern minimalistic design is coming back strong. There is no better material than stone in terms of natural beauty and bang for the buck. I would encourage designers and clients to find local quarries and start from there rather than hit the foreign stones right off the bat. It really is a beautiful thing to use materials that are locally sourced and they truly make the projects feel as if they belong in the site they are built on.”

Thewes— “Looking into the future, I don’t really see much of a change for tile other than possibly an increase in use due to its durability. It’s a battle between what the client desires more, warmth or durability. However, I do think that the use of stone will continue to rise as it provides both warmth and durability. As the quality of engineered stone improves, costs should go down and using stone in projects will no longer be a major drain on budgets. Durability and low maintenance are always important client requests and this material fits right in with that while also providing a major increase in quality and design. The addition of stone to any project increases its value and the perception of cost.”

Wiles— “I think we will continue to see natural and natural-looking hard surface materials in demand. These will be used in larger areas and combined with other materials that have more of an artisan vibe to create really durable, tactile and friendly environments. Tile and stone are really designer’s friend. Once you know how to best use them and have great craftspeople to install them, they can transform any space.”

Added by expert and export team of Bhandari Marble World…………………..

[realtalk-princeton]

To Maybach -- Anon 2023 again. Honestly, my other major option is Brown (and Penn, but that's out by now) and I'm concerned that I'd be sacrificing happiness if I choose Pton. "Happy" is a part of the Brown brand, whereas "ahhhhh" seems to be a part of Pton's. I want the name and the opportunities Pton would afford me. I suppose that's not a question, but how would you respond? Do you understand what I mean? Is it so awful to pick Pton 4 name/opportunity (in addition to the other stuff)

Sorry for the delay everyone, I just got caught up in a lot of obligations. Due to multiple popular demands from both pre-frosh and current students, I decided to structure my Brown and Princeton story in the following manner. In the first section, I’ll give my background context prior to starting college and my feelings throughout the years on the subject. In the second section, I’ll specifically address the above question in more detail with my many thoughts on key distinctions between the two schools. I think the combination will serve the purposes of everyone quite nicely. Lastly, if any pre-frosh ever want to talk to me, feel free to reach out and ask for my contact information. Or even better yet lol, I just remembered that PREVIEW started, so I guess it might be easier to just talk in person to me. I actually don’t even have class tomorrow haha. I just think that talking is sometimes easier than writing and also in these responses sometimes I have to speculate. For example, I can pretty safely state that if a pre-frosh is almost certain of being a pre-med, Brown is probably going to be a much less stressful experience, but I have no idea if this applies to you beforehand.

So anyway, even though it was four years ago, I still remember it like it was yesterday. Boy time flies. I was not the most studios or stand-out HS student. I wasn’t the valedictorian or salutatorian of a rather small school far away from major cities. While some Princetonian HS students spent summer doing lab research at universities, I spent mine goofing off with friends and traveling. We used to actually have a bonfire at the end of the school year and burned stacks of our HW up to 4 feet high lol. When it came to applying to college, I did not actually even again acceptance to NYU or BC lol even though my stats were more than up to par. I guess maybe they were concerned that I wouldn’t be a very hard-working student. Luckily, I am very fortunate that despite coming from an extremely educated family (grandfather and mom went to Columbia, Dad went to Berkeley, etc.), my parents never put that much pressure on me. So as you can imagine, I was super excited when I heard that I got into Princeton, Brown, Cornell, and some other schools. For a period of time, I was actually getting ready to go to Brown. My SO at the time had committed to URI and I was psyched by the super expressive culture of Brown. Students prided themselves on being true to themselves and also took full advantage of freedom with responsibility. The location was close enough to NYC and some kids from my HS were already there. I always hated excessive structure and authority growing up and the prospect of 70%’s A’s granted, no +/I’s, and pass/failing anything was totally alluring! On a side note, I always laugh when they say that people don’t abuse pass/fail and use it only like 10-15% of the time. Well, maybe that’s because they’re already handing out A’s like it’s water and all A-’s become A’s haha. But anyway, I was psyched. Who wouldn’t want to live at camp Brown and take it easier than HS, but still be guaranteed a legit degree on your resume? However, after I visited Princeton, connected with a large number of alumni, and actually started putting real thought into my education, my perspectives slowly, but surely started to change. I think what I really underestimated was the power of the Princeton degree and how impressive our alumni network truly is. The people I met and still meet to this day are absolutely brilliant in several respects (e.g. they aren’t just nerds in one subject) and many are focused on maximizing their impact and allocation of influence in this world. The alumni donation rate is nothing short of incredible and the chance to be part of this network was alluring. I remember meeting a guy actually who got waitlisted and was already attending Duke when he got the chance to go to Princeton. He lived every moment to the fullest with his academic pursuits, the social network of brilliant, but diverse persons, and solid career plans. Anyway, it just became more clear to me over time that while Princeton was rigorous, it’s academic qualities could be much more intimate and engaged than Brown and the intellectual horsepower of its students (mostly) created truly incredible and impactful people. Jeez lol I forget sometimes how many alumni we have on the SC, in politics, business, arts, etc. At Brown, all they do is gush over Emma Watson in an almost cult-like way (sarcasm). But anyway, I was getting pushed as you can imagine, but I was still worried as I wasn’t the best HS student and grade deflation had literally only ended the year before. But eventually, the offer was just too good to pass up. Once you become a Princeton student, your life truly does change and people will treat you give you credit solely based on this fact (whether it’s right or wrong is another story). I remember before I even committed, I was hanging out at the Princeton Club in New York and a few days later some of the guys (who literally knew me for like a few days), invited me out and basically paid of lunch at Smith and Wollensky and lauded me on my “accomplishments” lol and how they could always be resources to bolster a Princetonian. Pretty soon after I committed.

As for answering your specific question, I’m already seeing red flags. Whenever you choose a school for the name, that’s setting yourself up for a bad time. Yes, our opportunities are better. Look at the difference in endowments lol. It’s like that for a reason even though they have way more students and more grad schools. It’s also reflected as well in our post-graduation salary averages. Brown is more creative with RISD and it’s curriculum, but that doesn’t always equal more opportunities. Princeton has the most power and resources of any university on a per-student basis and gives us an incredibly powerful brand and network. That said, you should probably explore why you want to go to Princeton other than the name and brand. One of the miserable people I know picked Princeton over another school because it was the “Best” school she got into and that’s just not fun when you didn’t research enough beforehand. By contrast, I know someone who turned down Harvard for a small liberal arts school in the middle of nowhere and she had an amazing time. If you feel like and click with Brown’s social scene, that’s another reason for not going to Princeton. Academically, Princeton is better for people who want rigor and want to truly maximize their learning in a short period of time and be around amazing minds. Our depth is much better than Brown’s and it shows with how strong our students are in critical thinking skills both inside and outside of their majors. However, there is a downside to this. For example, if you want to major in physics at Princeton, you better adapt fast or be damn good at it. You can’t just “love” physics and be relatively bad at it (compared to your peers) to succeed here because we teach you to be the best students possible from professors who literally wrote your book. At Brown, sure you don’t learn as much or go as deep, but you can major in almost anything because you just aren’t held to the same standards. So there’s a tradeoff. If I majored in Brown’s business program, let me just say that I would not NEARLY be perceived by others to be so intelligent (even though I’m not lol). I know the kids in the degree, it’s not like they are dumb, but jeez lol is it a joke a bunch of the time. Relating sociology to business for example on the surface can seem like a good idea that teaches people until you actually see what they’re writing and working on. I would probably have a 4.0 without working as hard too. And I don’t mean this to mean I’m like super smart or anything. It’s just not comparable to Princeton. However, I am super blessed and thankful that I did take Economics here seriously. The kinds of critical thinking skills and the ability to analytically dissect complex multi-faceted problems that I have developed serve me very well and I feel so rewarded. I literally got a position at a hedge fund with no experience at all because the interviewer liked how I wrote a research paper on guns an applied rigorous statistical analysis in many novel ways to answer new questions. This is no different in many ways than using public information using novel techniques to find value where nobody else sees it. But overall, I think that I’m feeling Brown for you unless you are willing to work harder here for greater depth of learning. I just want to say too though that despite me working hard, I still don’t pull-allnighters almost ever and I still have achieved very high grades. You don’t have to be a genius to do well here. Take it from me. I had piss-poor test scores (by Princeton standards) and was not a valedictorian, but if you are strategic and work reasonably hard and are disciplined, the work is more than doable. I don’t want to brag because I think it promotes bad culture, but you ought to know that a student like me can succeed academically and perform at the top of their class without working in the library all the time. So you should really evaluate what kind of learning experience you want and where you will be most likely to be happy and healthy. Some people just want a break after HS and don’t care about going super deep into their learning development. That’s totally fine, but then Brown is probably better (assuming you also like the culture). Some people would really abuse Brown’s system, not really learn, develop unhealthy and bad habits, and be kind of bored. In that case, Princeton is better. It really depends on you, but if all you see here for you is a name, you’re probably shooting yourself in the foot coming here.

Anyway hope that all helps. I can answer specifics if you have them too.

Edit. also I realized how long this all is and noticed that maybe some of you should just call me or I can connect you with people I know who love Brown lol. It’s sometimes harder to write these things and express everything properly compared to like a 30-minute dinner conservasation. Just putting it out there. I’m also exhausted lol from staying up until 4am the past few nights for this huge deal coming up. I did this tonight so that I wouldn’t mess up my sleep schedule any further and avoid taking a nap lol.

[affcgato-archived]

anon: ✂ A fandom that you feel isn't open and accepting? salty af munday meme ( accepting )

I’d like to state that before I get started on this 1,000+ word rambling, this isn’t a criticism of anyone because everyone deserves to be able to curate their own experience. this is merely an observation of how that exact practice has done its own damage to the RPC, & maybe, if possible, it might be healthy to loosen up in what little ways we can or at least be a bit more cognizant of the general effects & even fallout of these specific behaviors. 

      honestly I feel like MOST fandoms have gotten very... I don’t want to say clique-ish but isolationist as a recent trend? I think a lot of us have been writing for such a long time, we have such specific ideas of our muses & how they fit into canon that newcomers who recently discovered or re-discovered a fandom may not be as warmly welcomed as they used to be when everything was a bit newer & shinier, & we didn’t have such entrenched visions of how we wanted to shape not only our muses, but maybe related facets of their canon around them. 

      I also know that with a lot of fandoms getting surprise (or even unsurprising) new material, that can make things a little interesting. one of my fandoms has no less than fifteen full length novels over several hundred pages each, with at least five more on the way + six supplemental novellas/collections that are also several hundred pages each -- bringing the full series to twenty-six novel-length pieces by itself. some of us have been with the fandom since book 1 was released, some have only been in with the show that was released a few years ago, & I think sometimes it’s hard to have the perspective that many people may not have the time to read all those books or even watch the entire show - they just want to enjoy what they know, & maybe wiki the rest or read along slowly. 

      I see that a lot in fandoms like Marvel, too, that has an even bigger canon with double digit movies, & every single major character existing within a multi-canon multiverse, some of which has been retconned multiple times, & much of which contradicts itself even within pieces of the same run. that’s really exhausting to keep up with from a casual fan point of view tbh? & I don’t have the time to delve into the comics more than every once in a while because I work full time so even if I do want to expand my knowledge, I have to do it very slowly ( see: it took me until this week to knock out The Old Guard comics, & there’s only two existing collections. ) - & I’ll easily admit that I feel intimidated to approach comic-only muns for this reason, so I can’t possibly be the only person who has built up this sense of being “unwelcomed” sheerly in their own head, & may need help or just time to overcome it.

      I can’t count how many people in various comic fandoms have “comic only, ( insert movie or show of choice ) DNI” in their rules, or book series. again, no judgment - this is your safe space to curate & maintain your own comfort zone. print media as a whole I’ve noticed is one particularly difficult set of fandoms to break into because while I could devour an entire novel in one day in college, I now unfortunately just don’t have the time, or the mental health, to do that so I end up having to add it to a never-ending list of canons to catch up on, & that just slows things down further. that being said, that does make large chunks of fandoms entirely inaccessible to me - an experience I have to assume is probably not unique.

      smaller fandoms have a different sort of struggle, I’ve noticed. I might have no issue catching up on their canon because it’s comparatively limited, but the number of people active in it is much smaller than the big draws of Marvel, SPN, TUA, probably tons others that I’m forgetting, etc. so I may not feel like diving in with a muse but I’d be down to give an existing muse a verse &-- get met with crickets, because even verses that are standalone still seem to be too intimidating when you’re not familiar with the character, their canon, or the like. 

      I would touch on the struggles of OCs trying to break in literally anywhere, but I feel like that’s a post entirely in & of itself. 

      so I guess my point of this wall of text is that in wanting to protect our own visions of our muses & curate our own content, it’s had the unfortunate side effect of making virtually all established fandoms fairly unwelcoming, or at the very least, extremely intimidating, to new members in their own ways, even if it’s unintentional. that, coupled with... trends isn’t the word I’m looking for but it’ll have to do - that have cropped up in the past ( OCs, particularly female OCs being perceived as “pushy”, multis struggling to gain traction for various reasons, crossover verses being somehow more intimidating than pure canon ) has made it just really difficult to expand outside of the admittedly sometimes large but still confining bubbles within whatever pre-established areas we’ve been writing in.  

      I know this isn’t true for everyone, & obviously everyone will have vastly different experiences, but it’s still the experience I’ve observed through my own & via discussions with other friends over the years, & it’s also precisely why I’ve tried to make it a point with my muses, if you are only familiar with one part of the canon -- HIT ME UP. I am familiar with weird facets of canon & I don’t mind sharing -- I’d like to challenge more people to do the same so we can make this hellsite a little more welcoming & get some new ideas to throw around. 

      AGAIN, this isn’t a criticism - having strong feelings for your muses canon is a good thing, I just also think that sharing the knowledge of other facets of the fandom without being judgmental of where someone else’s experiences may come from is also important WHEN POSSIBLE & I’d like to see more of that. there’s a huge difference between “you’re welcome to approach me even if--” & “I would actively like to plot with you & include you, let’s figure out how,” after all. 

[impressivepress]

Félicia Atkinson reflects on her latest album ‘The Flower And The Vessel’ for Shelter Press

Navigating her way across ASMR reflexivity, vaporous atmospherics, spoken word, neo-classical and some prog-rock-infused sense of spacious abstraction, French producer Félicia Atkinson has been laying the foundations to a body of work unlike any other in the current landscape of electronic music, distinguished by its unique approach to melodies and textures, as much as its vivid interdisciplinarity.

Félicia just recently resurfaced with her tenth album, ‘The Flower And The Vessel‘, issued like all her latest long-players via Shelter Press – the multi-faceted label she co-operates alongside her life and art alter-ego Bartolomé Sanson. Keen to learn more about the roots and shoots of her subtle craft, recording methods and matters such as the sacred in art, we caught up with Félicia for an in-depth chat.

Your tenth album ‘The Flower And The Vessel’ is due for release imminently. It was recorded during a particular period for you, as you were pregnant and on tour. How did this pregnancy effect your creative and existential vision of things?

I was feeling happy and never felt lonely during that time. I enjoyed recording whilst travelling a lot, it was a conscious choice. I felt I was playing for my baby. All three of us were travelling together; Bartolomé, me and the baby in my belly and the way we were traveling was very contemplative and mellow.

The way I am touring is also a bit special: a book fair, a couple of exhibitions, research time in a library, a few shows. It’s not a typical way to tour. We can allow ourselves to stay a few days in the same place. Visit national parks. It’s not very interesting economically wise but I always have a lot of work done through those journeys.

For example we were in the Olympic National Park in April 2018 and I would record lying in the bed while watching the rain falling on the Douglas Fir. The smell was incredible. I love to use smells as possible scores. I wrote poetry there as well and made some drawings. Those travelling moments are very creative.

What about the title – ‘The Flower And The Vessel’ – it sounds quite mysterious…

In an act of creation, be it ceramics, flower arrangement, philosophy or painting there is always this dialogue between idea and form, between support and surface, or even, if you dance or sing, between the breath and the body…

How do you make room for something? What’s a vessel? What is it to hold something and release it? What’s a record? An imprint? What is it to leave a trace? What is it to carry a new life form inside of you?

Ten albums in 10 years is quite the accomplishment. What would you say is the biggest difference between the 2008 version of you and your contemporary self, both as an artist and person?

I feel I know a bit more what I am looking for, and therefore how to surround myself with people, places and things that give me joy and inspiration. I feel thankful for that. I also feel more confident with my tools in a way. But on the other hand, I feel I have much more to discover and work for. The journey is not over!

Music seems to be a means for you to question the idea of belonging and connection to the natural order. Is the inclusion of field recordings and organic samples for you the way to re-connect musically; to maintain that subtle balance between your imaginary world and the reality of our surroundings?

Maybe… field recordings are a way to sketch what is surrounding me in everyday life, but it also brings me in an everyday state of deep listening. I spend a lot of time listening without recording. I feel touched by those sounds, and recording them sometimes is a way to acknowledge them and archive them, get into a relationship with them. Care about them.

I remember a little owl I recorded in the south of France or a piece of ice melting in the Alps – I used those recordings on my albums with Jefre Cantu. All of a sudden this little piece of ice and this little owl were invited at the table.

They become part of an imaginary community of sounds. Right now the sound of the rain in the Swiss Jura is melting with the sound of a shower and little noises of my baby sleeping but also the keyboard of my computer. It’s already music!

You said you managed connect yourself to the world “with small gestures: recording my voice, recording birds, a simple melody”. It all feels like delimitating a territory through repetition, a concept such as the one Deleuze explored in his interpretation of the lullaby. Was it this kind of process you went through?

“La Ritournelle” is a beautiful concept. I enjoy reading Deleuze for his way of drawing space inside concepts, in making philosophical ideas more visual. In my case, I am not sure I am using repetitions that much, I never use loops, only delays, my time is pretty linear, rather than circular in the way I am building music.

Layers of linearities, like different layers of perspective in a painting. But I think and hear music as a space indeed, as a territory. I hear distances, levels, depths, volumes.

Actually, I am interested in lullabies nowadays also because I deal with the fact of putting my child to sleep and it’s always a challenge and a knowledge to get there, but I learn a lot from him. I learn about repetition, rhythm and how to draw a space with sound that he feels comfortable enough to fall asleep in.

I am very interested in another Deleuzian concept which is the one of “becoming” (“Devenir” in French). The ability to shift, evolve, transform and acknowledge that stage of transformation as something itself.

Music is also about time and time moves things, makes them different, makes them shrink or get bigger. It’s interesting in a sound perspective. Nothing is permanent. Some people say that time doesn’t exist though. It’s a vast question.

The press release speaks of your interest in exploring the gap between micro and macro-cosmic scales, and throughout the album there’s indeed moments of intense focus and sudden distancing, acute close-ups and ample zoom-outs. How do you create this effect of space-time distortion?

As I stated previously, I think sound as a matter, the same way I do a sculpture for a painting or an installation. I use Logic Pro and basically cut, paste and stretch my sound like it was something flexible and soft.

I had “revelations” about micro and macro while living in the Alps surrounded by the mountains, wayyy older and bigger than me, and also after visiting the desert in Arizona several times, California, Utah and New Mexico.

I am fascinated by the Petrified Forest in Arizona and this gigantic delay it offers: a tree turned into a stone, gently washed by years of time. It makes me dizzy and happy at the same time.

You seem to have used a wealth of instruments on this album, both emulated and not. How large was your palette?

I wanted to bring in the same “real” instruments and digital instruments, so I went into two studios and recorded there, and also used midi instruments. Each time it’s an encounter.

The instruments are kind of a friend with whom you are playing ball and try to find a harmony between what you want to make and what the instrument can offer. I enjoy very much this dialectic. And also, I have a strong sentimental relationship with Fender Rhodes, vibraphones and Wurlitzer. They are good with me.

Your  new album gives further space to silence and pauses, allowing more magnitude to listening appropriation I think. Whilst Satie, Ravel and Debussy are quoted as influences, I also felt some artistic lineage with the more minimal side of Arvö Part’s work. Is it something you relate to?

Thank you for mentioning it. I really admire his work and his relationship to the sacred. His music could totally play a fatherly role to me even it’s not. And of course his piano pieces are important for me. But his music has a total absence of humour, which makes sense with his music of course and the context he writes it in, but it also shows that we are not addressing the same kind of contexts.

My music is more “minor” and less serious in a way. Maybe more feminine and pagan also? Animistic? I don’t know… I have a personal relationship with the sacred and the invisible and for sure it infuses in my compositions. But also, I feel I am way more superficial.

I wish my music could be be played in a supermarket or in a dive bar. You know, in the daytime I listen mostly to Neil Young or Springsteen’s Nebraska.

On ‘Des Pierres’ you collaborated with SUNN O))) guitarist Stephen O’Malley. Can you tell us more about the making of this track in particular?

Stephen invited me to do a session for his radio show Acid Quarry at Music Unit Studio. We recorded a whole day and he produced and mixed the track with Martin Antiphon. He just brought this book by Roger Caillois that is actually one of my favourite books and we used it a score, full of serendipity. I played different keyboards and used my voice and Stephen played the guitar. It was very natural, spontaneous and “à propos”.

You co-run Shelter Press with your partner Bartolomé Sanson, a label that doesn’t only release music but also books, zines and more. How important is this interdisciplinary format to you?

I guess it’s natural since I am a visual artist and a musician and we have a lot of books and records in the house. It’s a bit crazy also because it means it’s way much more work to do.

Is it safe to say self-releasing your music makes the making-to-issuing process “purer” and less of a hassle?

My music was shaped by the fact that I would release it on Shelter Press. It’s an everyday dialogue with Bartolomé. I can talk and think about what I want to do for my releases all the time, it allows me so much comfort, support and care that it’s difficult to imagine leaving this kind of super fitted context.

What’s coming up next on the label?

We’ll announce soon!

What values do you particularly cherish?

Care, freedom, positive energy, peace. I believe we have to care about the nature that surrounds us, the animals; the people and the variety of ideas. I believe in the power of imagination and I don’t think poetry or abstraction are superficial.

I believe in education and I feel children and babies should be more at the center of society because they give us a lot to think about through their new eyes; and because they are the future.

What faults do you least forgive?

This is a very strange question. I feel it’s a bit too moral and personal at the same time. I would ask to yourself in return: what faults do you least forgive?

What are your plans for the summer?

I am playing at Musica Sanae Festival in Sokolowsko in Poland and at Atonal in Berlin with two new commission works. Right now I am in a mountain in Switzerland looking at the clouds, after having played in Bern two days ago at Damfzentral (great people) and on my way to play a show at Ooor Records in Zurich (great people as well). We’re gonna take a walk in the forest under the rain in a few.

~

by Baptiste Girou · July 30, 2019

[dannofaust]

… what knives will I carry during my Mississippi River trip.

“Who is Frank and why does he want to know about your knives?” you might ask. Frank is a guy I have gotten to know through Facebook. Over the past few years Frank and I have struck up a friendship and even though we have never met in person, I feel like I know Frank and consider him a friend. He is someone that I have a lot in common with. We both love the outdoors, we both enjoy photography, and we are both DIY guys. We kind of think alike too. Frank has become somewhat of a mentor and adviser to me, which I really appreciate, because I value his opinion.

Frank sent me a message last week, saying that he enjoyed one of my blog posts. He mentioned that he would enjoy reading about which knives I would be carrying and why.

This struck me as a fantastic idea. It was like Frank was reading my mind. I had been thinking about what my next blog post subject should be. I was a bit stumped. Nothing was coming to mind. I try to have a few posts done ahead of time so that I am not pressured by the weekly deadline to post something. I needed just one more post and then I would have enough posts written to carry me through until my trip is scheduled to start. I didn’t want this one last post to be just a filler. It needed to be something interesting. BINGO! Frank came up with a great idea! Why hadn’t I thought of that ( palm to my forehead ).

I’m not a knife collector … not even a knife hoarder … but like most guys, and it seems like everybody who enjoys the outdoors, I have accumulated a few knives over the years. In my defense, I am now 62 years of age, so I’ve had some time for this accumulation to take place. It didn’t just happen overnight.

A SPECIAL NOTE: Knives aren’t just for guys. Ladies carry and use knives too. As I re-read and edited this post, it occurred to me that knives are a very macho subject, but much of that is because my perspective is from a male point of view. There’s not a whole lot I can do about that because … well … I was born this way. I feel like a woman’s perspective on this subject, and probably many others I have discussed on the Glory Days site, might be significantly different than my own. I for one would be interested in reading about these things from a woman’s perspective. If you are a woman and you are reading this, I encourage you to leave a comment. Even better, I encourage you to write your own blog. Canoeing, kayaking, camping, outdoor activities in general, and many other facets of everyday life have been dominated by the male perspective for too long. The only way to change that is for more women to get involved and share their thoughts and experiences. Ok … I am stepping off my soap box now. Thanks for indulging me.

First and foremost I consider a knife to be a tool. Like any tool, I value it because of it’s usefulness. A good tool is something that I will NOT easily part with. Good knives are things you keep for a lifetime. That being said, I still have most of the knives I have ever owned.

My cutting tool accumulation.

As I started to think about the knives that I will carry, it got me thinking about the other knives that I own and have carried over the years. I knew that I had a few, but it wasn’t until I got them all in one place that I realized how many there are. Most of them had been relegated to the back of a drawer or put into storage and almost forgotten about. It took me nearly an hour to scrape them all together. I have 14 knives ( 6 fixed blades, 8 folders ). I also have 1 ax, 2 machetes, 3 micro multi-tools, and 3 folding saws. The third micro multi-tool just came into my possession and didn’t make it into the photo above.

Even though my collection of knives is bigger than I thought, I have a hunch that it pales in comparison to a lot of other guys and gals out there, including my buddy Frank. The shear number of knives that many people have would easily eclipse mine, but also the quality and desirability of the knives in other collections would undoubtedly put mine to shame.

I guess what I have been trying to say in the last few paragraphs is that my knives are not so much a “knife collection” as they are an accumulation of cutting tools.

So which knives will I carry? I will carry three knives. Two folders and a fixed blade. The two folders will be tethered to my life jacket. The fixed blade knife will be stored with the rest of my gear when I am paddling down the river and clipped onto my belt when I am not paddling.

Both folding knives are lock blades. The first one, my primary knife while I am on the water, is an inexpensive Imperial Schrade that was made in China. It has a 3 1/2 inch blade and a plastic handle that fits my hand nicely. It has a small thumb stud that allows me to open the knife with one hand. It also has a clip that allows the knife to attach to my life jacket and a hole in the handle that lets me tether it to my life jacket. The tether is a length of 550 para-cord long enough that I can wield the knife at arms length without restriction. This knife weighs about 3.5 ounces ( 98 grams ).

I want the knife to be tethered to my life jacket so that I can’t lose it, but any line or rope attached to you can be a hazard out on the river. For that reason, I carry a second knife, also tethered to my life jacket. If one knife or it’s tether gets hung up on something and it is putting me at risk, I can use the other knife to cut myself loose. Both tethers tuck out of the way into pockets in the shoulder straps of my life jacket. Hopefully, in that way, they won’t get caught on anything.

The second knife on my life jacket is a Buck model 444 Bucklite. It has a blade that is about 2 1/2 inches long. It does not have a thumb stud or any other feature that aids in opening it with one hand, but with the knife on a short tether, it doesn’t need one. The tether for this knife only needs to be long enough to allow me to cut free from the long tether on my primary knife. Once the knife is deployed and at the end of its tether it can easily be opened with one hand. The knife only weighs about 1.3 ounces ( 36 grams ) and it fits effortlessly into the pocket on the shoulder strap of my life jacket. I don’t even know it’s there because it weighs so little and takes up almost no room.

I have always liked Buck knives. They have a reputation for producing quality knives. My model 444 Bucklite probably isn’t what most people would think of when they think of a quality knife, but I think it’s a great knife for its intended use. It’s the one knife I took with me when I backpacked, Rim to Rim, across the Grand Canyon. It’s lightweight, has a high quality locking blade that is very sharp, and the handle is just big enough to give me a good purchase. For such a light weight, this is a serious cutting tool.

The third knife that I will take along on my journey down the Big Muddy will be a Mora “Light My Fire” fixed blade knife in a plastic sheath. The knife came with a nice leather sheath, but the plastic sheath will hold up better in the wet environment along the river. Another great feature of the plastic sheath is that it clips on and off of a belt without taking the belt off. The sheath takes just seconds to clip onto my belt. Once installed, it is very secure. Removing the sheath is just as quick and easy. If I am using a knife, I want a sheath that I can wear so that I am not laying the knife down anywhere and losing it. That is a common problem in the outdoors. If the knife isn’t in my hand, it should be in the sheath.

I think a fixed blade is ideal for chores around camp like processing wood for a fire, whittling tarp stakes, cutting cord, or other necessities. I don’t want to use either of the knives on my life jacket for those things because they need to be razor sharp in an emergency.

The Mora knife is mass produced. Made in Sweden, Mora knives have earned a reputation for their high quality Swedish stainless steel, dependability, and proven design. These knives are ideal for a wet environment and they are easily field sharpened. I also like that they are light weight ( 4.0 ounces/ 112 grams including the sheath ) and relatively inexpensive. It never hurts to have another fire starting capability either.

I have tried to embrace a lightweight backpacking mentality when it comes to choosing what gear I will take along on this trip. For some backpackers, one knife would be overkill. Three knives are definitely more than I would take if I was backpacking, but this isn’t a backpacking trip. A knife is definitely something I want to have handy whenever I am out on the water.

As long as we are discussing knives, I thought I would mention other cutting tools. Along with my knives I also have several folding saws and a couple of multi-tools that are pretty handy to have along.

I do own two machetes and a small ax, but those tools will not be coming along on this trip. I recently made a impulse purchase of a sweet machete, telling myself that it would be perfect for my trip. A paddler friend warned me that a 2000 mile solo river trip is not the time to be playing around with a machete. Thank you Josh. You probably saved me from a nasty injury in the middle of nowhere. An ax is also a notorious source of injuries. Besides that, the ax is too big and heavy to carry on a long trip. It will have to stay home as well.

I will be taking one of my folding saws along though. It’s a Stihl folding limb saw that’s made in the U.S.A.. I have carried it on many canoeing and camping trips over the years, and even used it around the yard from time to time. It has been abused and neglected, but it is still razor sharp. I hope I don’t need it, but it sure might come in handy. Especially on the upper section of the river. At just 3.2 ounces ( 90 grams ) and only 6.5 inches long folded ( just over 11 1/2 inches opened ), I feel like this little saw is worth taking along. We’ll see how long I keep it with me, but I think it’s a keeper.

The one last little “cutting tool” of sorts that I plan to take along will be a Gerber Dime micro multi-tool. I received this as a gift for my birthday just before I finished writing this post, so it didn’t make it into the photo of my accumulated collection at the top of this post. The Gerber Dime has a screw driver, a knife, a file, tiny scissors, bottle opener, and of course … the all important pliers with wire cutters. It’s not the most comprehensive multi-tool I could take along, but it does fill a lot of gaps in my repair kit and will allow me to make repairs that would otherwise be very difficult or impossible. One of the main design characteristics of this tool is it’s portability, which is also why I chose it. The Dime weighs just 2.4 ounces ( 70 grams ). It is the smallest and lightest of the multi-tools that I own. Even though this was a gift, it didn’t hurt that the dime is also very inexpensive compared to other micro multi-tools on the market.

The total weights for all of these tools is 14.4 ounces ( 406 grams ). That’s less than a pound. I don’t think that’s too bad for 3 knives, a folding saw, and a micro multi-tool.

I hope you enjoyed reading this post. I had a lot of fun writing it. Thanks again to Frank for making the suggestion to write about knives. If you have questions or comments, please feel free to leave a comment ( either here or on Facebook ). I know a lot of people have a favorite knife, or a story about a knife, and we all have our own opinions about cutting tools and safety; so please feel free to share your thoughts, opinions, questions, and comments. I learn a lot that way. Thanks!

“Like music and art, love of nature is a common language that can transcend political and social boundaries.” – Jimmy Carter

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Knives! Frank wants to know … ... what knives will I carry during my Mississippi River trip. "Who is Frank and why does he want to know about your knives?" you might ask.

[newandbrave]

Yeo ft. Asta – Never Wanted That

Talented Melbourne artist Yeo started 2017 off by supporting HAELOS at their Falls sideshow, Harts for his national tour and Emma Louise in festival showcases (as her musical director and band member). Amongst the performer’s busyness on the road, Yeo has made time for his love of production and song writing, releasing his first single for the year “Never Wanted That.” Yeo cannot receive all the credit for this single, as the track wouldn’t have been the same without the flair of Tasmanian singer Asta, who has recently produced her EP Shine. This is the first collaboration in the lead up to Yeo’s LP Desire Path (its rumoured there are more alliances to come).

“Never Wanted That” hit the sweet spot of contemporary music, it has all the charm of a commercial song, but the substance and sincerity of a truly gifted artist. This track provides the simplicity of a pop song, with a minimal dance beat that is completed with the rhythm of a clean guitar riff, nailing what the majority of listeners want to please their ears with, something that is catchy, not too intense and still gets them grooving without that doof feeling. The singing relationship between Asta and Yeo paints the picture of an Australian Drake and Rihanna, as the duo sing together and to each other as opposed to a simple feature. This prevents listeners from questioning whether the artists have actually met and worked together as well as allowing fans to feel the real depth and emotion of the song. What removes the cheese from this track and enables the sweet spot to be hit (opposed to other pop songs) is the naturalism of the lyrics, Yeo’s wit and common, everyday language pulls down the superficiality of the single and creates a certain relatability with the audience (a trait of all great artists). This conveying of language makes the message of the song so much more true to listeners, as the track portrays the false confidence and excuses men and women put up in a relationship, due to the harsh challenges of this world.

As for the video, the sentiment continues with the setting of the visual being a presumable 1960’s or 70’s, a period that embodies freedom, love and a simplicity that has gained fascination by 21st century hippies known as hipsters. Both artists suit their characters as blonde beauty, Asta, fits every part of a revolutionary love child, whilst Yeo’s more refined, straight laced outfit provides a good contrast for a song about the challenges between two lovers on the same page but with different opinions. The charm of this video is in the props and creative orchestration of the visual, as the screen is split into two, with both artists on the same couch completing activities that involve each other (blowing bubbles, Asta puts her feet on Yeo, Yeo snatches the magazine from Asta, etc). Except these events are reversed (e.g. Asta blows bubbles at Yeo toward the end of the video, yet Yeo feels them hit his face at the start), the video ending with a removal of the split screen and revealing how both artists are sitting on the same couch.

Yeo, who has been a favoured artist of New and Brave, was kind enough to take the time out of his schedule to have a chat and provide answers to the questions we all wanted to ask.  

1. What has it been like to support Harts and Haelos and work with Emma Louise? Were they influences before your collaboration?

I knew of their work a long time before actually meeting them. I saw them perform a few times to huge crowds. They were both strong inspirations as examples of what is achievable with strong releases and a good team behind you.

2. You have said that in hindsight, you are unimpressed with your early music. What did you change to improve your song writing abilities? Or was it just your perspective on your own music?

If you're talking about the raw song writing side of things, I actually spent a while exploring folk and country music. In that genre it's all about simplicity. It's about a message or a feeling. My lyrics were very simple to start out with, and though they're still quite literal these days I hope I have learned to imply more depth. For example, instead of just singing "I went to the shop and bought a sausage roll," I'd now re-word 'shop' to 'milk-bar', say something about flaky pastry and combine it with suitable harmony and melody to convey my reasons for the excursion and how it makes me feel. In tandem, I've constantly been working on my production technique and trying to minimalize the squeeze (that is, including everything I possibly can, all the time) to leave more space for the music to breathe. I think over the years I've grown more patient with myself, as well as appreciative of what collaboration with other artists can offer.

3. You have been noted as a particularly hard working artist, tell us about your typical work habits.

I can easily spend entire days working on my songs with minimal interruptions. Sometimes I forget to eat, or find eating a nuisance. Don't get me wrong, I love eating, but when I'm on a roll doing what I love most, I forget about everything else. During the warmer months, if I have nothing planned the following day, I typically work on music in my shed until 3 or 4am in the morning, sometimes until sunrise. I've been known to start and finish a song within a weekend. Andy (my drummer) and I are pretty steadfast when it comes to rehearsing. We might arrive at the rehearsal room at 6pm, and finish around midnight, breaking once for a meal. I've been in lots of bands that take breaks often, like after setting up their instruments or after rehearsing one song. I don't look down those habits since it's important to appreciate the social aspect of music, but Andy and I know if we do the hard work now, we can relax and have fun when we're on tour because we know our shit. Vivian (my manager) and I often try and hang out as friends and we just end up planning our careers. I guess we love what we do.

4. Your multi–instrumentation is respectable, especially in today’s industry. What did you learn first and how did you go about mastering multiple instruments? What instrument is the basis for your writing?

I started with piano. I soon got bored with piano so I picked up guitar in high-school. Then at university, I realised almost everybody can play the guitar so I picked up the bass. And I fell in love with the bass. It's not as simple as that, as there are varying degrees of proficiency, but that was my literal thought process. I have written songs starting with any of the three, and every now and then a song begins with a vocal hook or a lyric. It changes almost every time.

5. Your sound has stood out in the genre of electronic music. What is your opinion on this facet of the music industry and what is your advice for progression in the Australian market?

I love electronic music because of the technical side of it. I nerd out about synthesis and breaking rules. I'll always be a songwriter at heart, rather than a "producer" that is skilled at making "beats" and "huge drops", which seems to be all the rage. The Australian market has allowed me to progress at nothing faster than a snail's pace, so I'm not sure if I'd be the right person to give advice. I'm also from a different decade (i.e. old) so there are new aspects of business I don't understand no matter how hard I try. If I had any advice, it would be to try learn as much as you can and never stop. Knowledge is power.

6. You have a diverse taste in music, who are you listening to right now and who are some local or unknown artists you really appreciate?

There's an artist from New York called Amber Mark. Her latest two singles are "Can You Hear Me?" and "Lose My Cool". They're honest songs about loss, with effective production that isn't fussy. The latter I've had on repeat, and it is perfect. It really showcases her sense of melody and expertise in structure. Lonelyspeck is a world-class writer from Adelaide. Their EP "Lave" is a display of unique production, and has a cool R&B edge which I generally look for when hunting for music.

7. You have a certain wit and humour in your writing, is that Ben Folds influenced?

Ha! I was a huge fan of Ben growing up, but I haven't listened to a song of his since my uni days. You could definitely compare our humour though. To be honest, I'm dissatisfied with the way things are on Earth. It's a great planet, and I wouldn't call anywhere else home (yet), but it's messed up in so many ways. Humour is the only way I know how to deal with things when they're messed up. Be it a shitty gig, or a clear display of unfair prejudice, or simply attempting to walk through a set of automatic doors and not being tall enough to trip the sensor, I'd rather laugh than get angry. I do get angry and spit vitriol from time to time. The processes are complex and deeply internal. They manifest in sarcastic lyrics and an eye-roll. That's me.

8. You must like working with Asta as you have reunited for “Never Wanted That.” Describe your working relationship further.

She's an incredible improviser. A solid proportion of her part in "Never Wanted That" was made up on the fly. I'm really drawn to Asta's energy, and there are layers of it, like an onion - though her talent clearly runs to the core. She's a lot calmer and sensitive on the inside than a lot of people immediately see. On the outside there's this amazing raw power. When she gets excited, everyone around her gets excited. I'm not really sure why she hangs out with me or wants to work with me, but I'm glad it's happening.

9. Your sound is so diverse that I did not know what to expect for “Never Wanted That.” What was the inspiration for this song and please outline the song writing process?

Full disclosure: I am a huge Rihanna fan, and one of the biggest songs she had last year was "Too Good", her duet with Drake. From that song I found Popcaan, and then the associated artist rabbit-hole turned into a yawning cavern. Anyhow, that influenced the production side of things. I started with the guitar, and tried to keep it simple. Then came the bass-line, and eventually drums. I structurally, I tried to do a lot with a little, creating new sections without too many changes. Lyrically, it's the same as usual. Someone was extremely rude to me. Someone was extremely rude to Asta. We got together and decided that these people are assholes and we're going to drag them. All. Day. Long.

10. What has been your greatest achievement so far and what has Yeo got in store for us in the future?

My greatest achievement would be gaining the mutual trust and respect of the people in my team. They all work hard, understand the pitfalls, keep my head above water/from expanding, motivate me when I need it most, and remind me to enjoy the fruits of labour. We're in the midst of releasing a billion singles and eventually an album in August, followed by a national tour in September. After that, I'll be keen for another album.

Facebook • Twitter • Soundcloud • Spotify

By Josh

[mrs-nate-humphrey]

what are you most hoping for in the gossip girl reboot?

hmm, spent a while thinking on this, and i feel like the obvious answer is just... interesting and immersive dynamics, as well as complicated, well fleshed-out and nuanced characters. gg07 was as captivating as it was because every single character was multi-faceted and complex; the best example being blair. there are so many layers to the way she behaves and why she behaves that way, and so much about her that you understand only as the show progresses and you have more perspective. and then the dynamics! no two dynamics on the show were the same, despite there being parallels between the characters. like we can joke about dan & vanessa being the same person, or nate & serena being the same person, but despite how similar their personalities are, the way they interact with different characters is extremely different. i want that kind of depth - now that we know that this new batch of super rich kids (see what i did there? lol) actively define themselves as best friends, i want to see what each person brings to the group and also how different their interactions and dynamics are with each other.

i feel extremely, like, uhhhh. gg07 was based on the gossip girl books, and they had some source material to base their show on. even then, debatably, some of the depth did not translate right - nate's arc in the books, for instance - i don't want to spoil it for people who haven't read it, but the challenges nate goes through in the books feel a lot more... appropriate? aligned with his character? interesting??? i don't know. i'm just saying there was a depth there (to me) that the show never really gave him. but!!! i really do think blair's depth and nuance comes in major part from the books, tbh. there are definitely differences between book!blair and show!blair, but i feel like show!blair had the same - or at the very least - similar vulnerabilities and complexities that book!blair does.

so, given that, the fact that the reboot gives us ENTIRELY NEW CHARACTERS... i am excited!!! there is NO source material, literally nothing we know about these characters except what we are being told and what we are being shown. i'm interested in seeing that, and i really really hope that they don't reuse the same roles as gg07, you know? like all this golden boy, sunshine barbie, queen b, lonely boy stuff has been DONE and i don't want to see new characters filling in the old hierarchies. i saw someone in the comments of that trailer, i think it was, talking about how they hope this character and this character are the new chuck and blair or something along those lines and i.... hope we don't get much of that. not chuck and blair but like ANYTHING resembling regurgitated 07 dynamics. i don't want a gen z derena. i don't!! i want something that stands totally alone from 07. i want it to be the sort of show that even if you haven't watched 07, you can watch and understand. at the same time, little nods to the original, like that blairena headband to scarf thing between zoya and julien, are cute.

i'm also interestingly curious about constance & st jude's. in my experience, schools and the culture of schools actually change slightly, over the years. when i talk to older alumni from my high school, for instance, i'm always like :0 because often their school experience is veryyyy different from mine. nads has said this first, but the upper east side in 07 felt a lot like a character of its own. i guess the reboot might have that too, i don't know. i'm not super interested in that (personally kinda bored of the ues, pls let them switch it up) but i think it would be very, very cool if constance and st judes, like, the schools, had enough of a Vibe and Atmosphere that they feel like living entities, you know??? especially since high school is LITERALLY like that. high school is fucking haunted. i graduated high school, i can say this, lol.

[laurelkrugerr]

How COVID-19 may change the SERP forever

What started out as a simple alert panel has evolved into the most prolific set of direct information the Google SERP has ever seen. Google’s on-the-SERP coverage of COVID-19 isn’t only an easy-to-access beast of a data source, it’s also a peek at what could be coming to the SERP… permanently. 

The uniqueness of the COVID-19 SERP 

The SERP Google shows for many queries directly related to COVID-19 (i.e., anything from coronavirus to COVID-19 cure) is unique in two essential ways: 

The amount of raw data being presented. There is just an absurd amount of data that Google presents on these SERPs. Google is showing you a breakdown of the COVID-19 cases in your location (as well as the world at large) as an accent to a global map of the pandemic’s spread. Of course, Google gives you the opportunity to click ahead in order to see a full breakdown of the COVID-19 data shown on the SERP. It’s a testimony to how hard Google can push direct content if it really wanted to. It’s both radically awesome and a bit frightening at the same time. 

The left-hand menu functionality. While the right side of these ‘COVID-19’ SERP contains “knowledge” the left side contains specialty functionality. Here Google gives us a sticky menu (i.e., it follows you as you scroll down the SERP) that serves as a way to delve deeper into various aspects of the pandemic. Clicking on a given option brings up an entire SERP devoted to exploring that particular aspect of COVID-19.

While I could talk about the implications of Google going so deep into offering direct data on the SERP, it’s the functionality at the left side of the page that really caught my attention because I think it solves some of the biggest problems Google faces going forward. 

The COVID-19 SERP functionality solves some of Google’s biggest problems

Personalization is a tricky matter. There’s a lot to balance when trying to highly target a specific user. That’s true for us as marketers and that’s true for Google. Google has long faced issues around personalization. The prime example of this has been the controversy Google has faced in regard to personalization within the search results leading to a filter bubble. November 2020 is not that far off so you can expect the issue and allegations of “biased” results to rear its heads again once the US elections kick into full-gear.

At the same time personalization puts Google on a collision course with another one of its ‘search result aspirations’ – diversity. As a means of effectively targeting its users, Google, more often than not, caters to multiple intents with an offering of a diverse set of results. Hyper-personalization and a strong diversification of the search results are obviously at heads with each other. You simply can’t have both. There’s not enough space on the SERP. You’re talking about showing an effective amount of diversity while strongly targeting a user with just 10 results. That’s damned near impossible.

So how is Google to solve this? With the functionality you see at the left of the page for COVID-19 queries.

Let’s take the two problems I’ve already brought up, the filter bubble and the collision that is personalization and result diversity, add another issue into the mix, and see how the unique functionality of the COVID-19 SERP is the great panacea.

The problem of personalization is solved with user input

The biggest white elephant when discussing personalization within the search results is not the filter bubble nor is it the great battle for diversity vs. personalization. Rather, it’s personalization itself. I’ve long been on a soapbox saying, nay shouting, that the ultimate personalization that Google is after is not possible without user input.

I don’t care how smart Google gets and how great it becomes at offering personalized results, Google will never be able to know what a user in a specific moment is after (which is partly why it cannot abandon result diversity even with advanced personalization). The only way Google can offer the level of personalization it is after is by putting the user in control of the SERP. By letting the user tell Google what they want and by letting Google give that to them.

Now, how do you give the user control over the SERP?

I don’t know, how does a sticky menu at the left of the page that lets the user filter out what they want sound?

Imagine you searched for estate planning. (I recently realized my will is worthless ever since I moved out of the US.) There’s a lot you could mean by this query. Are you looking for information on the financial end? Do you need some tax information? If it’s the latter what state are you in as every state in the US has different laws?

In this instance, Google might look at my past behavior and think that I’m looking for a local lawyer to help me navigate the legalities of my “estate.” Which it does when I run the search (though in my case I have no prior search history):

Suppose, however, that despite my previous searches I really want financial information. In that case, the Local Pack I get is totally irrelevant and now I have to skim the result to pick and choose what I want or think of a more refined search to run and what a drag that is.

Now imagine I had a SERP with a sticky menu at the left of the page that let me see a SERP related to either local lawyers, financial services, etc. With user input, Google can offer me a full set of results that matches my exact intent.

I’ll take this one step further. Not every user has only one intent. How efficient would it be if Google let me toggle back and forth between various menu options so that I can open tabs for results that hit on multiple intents without having to run multiple queries? So if I wanted to look up a local lawyer and read up on some financial tips I could do both with the same search!

Simply, the sticky menu Google has implemented for COVID-19 queries brings a new level of user input to the SERP. That’s huge. 

More space prevents personalization trainwrecks

At this point, you can see how having a sticky menu, like the one seen on the COVID-19 SERP, prevents a collision between personalization and result diversity. The contradiction that is both superb personalization and diversity among the results is mainly a problem because of space. You can’t adequately meet both demands with the limited space a single SERP offers the user.

The sticky side menu functionality lets you breakdown the query by intent. It lets Google energetically target the user on the initial SERP without having to water that level of personalization down with a diverse set of results. Rather, the options within the menu would reflect the intended diversity Google needs to offer.

That is, the sticky menu would allow Google to engage in a topical intent-based segmentation. This could play itself out in a variety of ways. If you search for buy car insurance Google could offer you whatever it thinks is personally relevant on the initial SERP. It could then segment according to intent. 

In this case, I could imagine a side menu that included a tab that read Compare policies where you would see results that compared what’s included in various types of insurance policies. I could also imagine a tab entitled Policy reviews where you could read reviews on the various insurance companies and their policies. If you don’t need to research anything at this juncture then you might click on a tab for Buy policies where all the sites that offer a policy would appear.

I think you get my drift.

Nothing pops filter bubbles like sticky side menus 

Last, but not least, a side menu that sticks gives Google the opportunity it needs to avoid any sort of filter bubble criticism. In such a scenario, Google would not have to directly worry about the results on the SERP further confirming a user’s biases. The side menu would allow Google to go full-on personalization. All Google would need to do is supplement the extreme levels of personalization with a broader set of content that would be accessed via the side menu.

Imagine the worst-case filter bubble scenario, political bias. Even if, hypothetically speaking, a search history slanted towards a particular political party produced results that reeked of confirmation bias, it wouldn’t be a problem. Google could counteract that level of personalization by supplementing perspective via, you guessed it, a sticky side menu!

You might have a set of initial results that are slanted towards a given political perspective. However, Google could easily supplement this with a broader look at the topic via the side menu. In this case, all Google would have to do is insert a tab that read Also in the news much like it does in its multi-carousel News Box on mobile:

It’s an easy solution that not only ensures Google offers a well-balanced look at sensitive topics but simultaneously extends the user’s journey in all-new ways (which is another significant aspect of Google’s mantra).

There you have it, search result objectivity that extends the user’s journey – two birds with one stone!

The multi-faceted SERP is coming (I think)!

The SERP as it is now is antiquated in many ways. The entire construct is one that was designed for a different era of digital content consumption. As Google gets better at understanding what’s out there and gets better at serving what it now understands it’s going to need creative solutions to head-off some serious problems.

Obviously, I can’t predict the future. But it’s hard for me to imagine Google designed a new format for the SERP and isn’t thinking about its implications much the way I have above. Whether it be the format and functionality Google is using for its COVID-19 SERPs or whether it’s something different – a results page that allows for some sort of user input – seems all but inevitable to me.

Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.

About The Author

Mordy is the head of marketing agency for Rank Ranger, an industry leading all-in-one SEO Company reporting suite. Outside of helping to build the Rank Ranger brand, Mordy spends most of his time working to help educate the SEO Company industry by publishing a constant stream of in-depth research and analysis. You can hear Mordy take up the latest issues facing the SEO Company community on his weekly podcast, The In Search SEO Company Podcast.

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source http://www.scpie.org/how-covid-19-may-change-the-serp-forever/ source https://scpie1.blogspot.com/2020/04/how-covid-19-may-change-serp-forever.html

[riichardwilson]

How COVID-19 may change the SERP forever

What started out as a simple alert panel has evolved into the most prolific set of direct information the Google SERP has ever seen. Google’s on-the-SERP coverage of COVID-19 isn’t only an easy-to-access beast of a data source, it’s also a peek at what could be coming to the SERP… permanently. 

The uniqueness of the COVID-19 SERP 

The SERP Google shows for many queries directly related to COVID-19 (i.e., anything from coronavirus to COVID-19 cure) is unique in two essential ways: 

The amount of raw data being presented. There is just an absurd amount of data that Google presents on these SERPs. Google is showing you a breakdown of the COVID-19 cases in your location (as well as the world at large) as an accent to a global map of the pandemic’s spread. Of course, Google gives you the opportunity to click ahead in order to see a full breakdown of the COVID-19 data shown on the SERP. It’s a testimony to how hard Google can push direct content if it really wanted to. It’s both radically awesome and a bit frightening at the same time. 

The left-hand menu functionality. While the right side of these ‘COVID-19’ SERP contains “knowledge” the left side contains specialty functionality. Here Google gives us a sticky menu (i.e., it follows you as you scroll down the SERP) that serves as a way to delve deeper into various aspects of the pandemic. Clicking on a given option brings up an entire SERP devoted to exploring that particular aspect of COVID-19.

While I could talk about the implications of Google going so deep into offering direct data on the SERP, it’s the functionality at the left side of the page that really caught my attention because I think it solves some of the biggest problems Google faces going forward. 

The COVID-19 SERP functionality solves some of Google’s biggest problems

Personalization is a tricky matter. There’s a lot to balance when trying to highly target a specific user. That’s true for us as marketers and that’s true for Google. Google has long faced issues around personalization. The prime example of this has been the controversy Google has faced in regard to personalization within the search results leading to a filter bubble. November 2020 is not that far off so you can expect the issue and allegations of “biased” results to rear its heads again once the US elections kick into full-gear.

At the same time personalization puts Google on a collision course with another one of its ‘search result aspirations’ – diversity. As a means of effectively targeting its users, Google, more often than not, caters to multiple intents with an offering of a diverse set of results. Hyper-personalization and a strong diversification of the search results are obviously at heads with each other. You simply can’t have both. There’s not enough space on the SERP. You’re talking about showing an effective amount of diversity while strongly targeting a user with just 10 results. That’s damned near impossible.

So how is Google to solve this? With the functionality you see at the left of the page for COVID-19 queries.

Let’s take the two problems I’ve already brought up, the filter bubble and the collision that is personalization and result diversity, add another issue into the mix, and see how the unique functionality of the COVID-19 SERP is the great panacea.

The problem of personalization is solved with user input

The biggest white elephant when discussing personalization within the search results is not the filter bubble nor is it the great battle for diversity vs. personalization. Rather, it’s personalization itself. I’ve long been on a soapbox saying, nay shouting, that the ultimate personalization that Google is after is not possible without user input.

I don’t care how smart Google gets and how great it becomes at offering personalized results, Google will never be able to know what a user in a specific moment is after (which is partly why it cannot abandon result diversity even with advanced personalization). The only way Google can offer the level of personalization it is after is by putting the user in control of the SERP. By letting the user tell Google what they want and by letting Google give that to them.

Now, how do you give the user control over the SERP?

I don’t know, how does a sticky menu at the left of the page that lets the user filter out what they want sound?

Imagine you searched for estate planning. (I recently realized my will is worthless ever since I moved out of the US.) There’s a lot you could mean by this query. Are you looking for information on the financial end? Do you need some tax information? If it’s the latter what state are you in as every state in the US has different laws?

In this instance, Google might look at my past behavior and think that I’m looking for a local lawyer to help me navigate the legalities of my “estate.” Which it does when I run the search (though in my case I have no prior search history):

Suppose, however, that despite my previous searches I really want financial information. In that case, the Local Pack I get is totally irrelevant and now I have to skim the result to pick and choose what I want or think of a more refined search to run and what a drag that is.

Now imagine I had a SERP with a sticky menu at the left of the page that let me see a SERP related to either local lawyers, financial services, etc. With user input, Google can offer me a full set of results that matches my exact intent.

I’ll take this one step further. Not every user has only one intent. How efficient would it be if Google let me toggle back and forth between various menu options so that I can open tabs for results that hit on multiple intents without having to run multiple queries? So if I wanted to look up a local lawyer and read up on some financial tips I could do both with the same search!

Simply, the sticky menu Google has implemented for COVID-19 queries brings a new level of user input to the SERP. That’s huge. 

More space prevents personalization trainwrecks

At this point, you can see how having a sticky menu, like the one seen on the COVID-19 SERP, prevents a collision between personalization and result diversity. The contradiction that is both superb personalization and diversity among the results is mainly a problem because of space. You can’t adequately meet both demands with the limited space a single SERP offers the user.

The sticky side menu functionality lets you breakdown the query by intent. It lets Google energetically target the user on the initial SERP without having to water that level of personalization down with a diverse set of results. Rather, the options within the menu would reflect the intended diversity Google needs to offer.

That is, the sticky menu would allow Google to engage in a topical intent-based segmentation. This could play itself out in a variety of ways. If you search for buy car insurance Google could offer you whatever it thinks is personally relevant on the initial SERP. It could then segment according to intent. 

In this case, I could imagine a side menu that included a tab that read Compare policies where you would see results that compared what’s included in various types of insurance policies. I could also imagine a tab entitled Policy reviews where you could read reviews on the various insurance companies and their policies. If you don’t need to research anything at this juncture then you might click on a tab for Buy policieswhere all the sites that offer a policy would appear.

I think you get my drift.

Nothing pops filter bubbles like sticky side menus 

Last, but not least, a side menu that sticks gives Google the opportunity it needs to avoid any sort of filter bubble criticism. In such a scenario, Google would not have to directly worry about the results on the SERP further confirming a user’s biases. The side menu would allow Google to go full-on personalization. All Google would need to do is supplement the extreme levels of personalization with a broader set of content that would be accessed via the side menu.

Imagine the worst-case filter bubble scenario, political bias. Even if, hypothetically speaking, a search history slanted towards a particular political party produced results that reeked of confirmation bias, it wouldn’t be a problem. Google could counteract that level of personalization by supplementing perspective via, you guessed it, a sticky side menu!

You might have a set of initial results that are slanted towards a given political perspective. However, Google could easily supplement this with a broader look at the topic via the side menu. In this case, all Google would have to do is insert a tab that read Also in the news much like it does in its multi-carousel News Box on mobile:

It’s an easy solution that not only ensures Google offers a well-balanced look at sensitive topics but simultaneously extends the user’s journey in all-new ways (which is another significant aspect of Google’s mantra).

There you have it, search result objectivity that extends the user’s journey – two birds with one stone!

The multi-faceted SERP is coming (I think)!

The SERP as it is now is antiquated in many ways. The entire construct is one that was designed for a different era of digital content consumption. As Google gets better at understanding what’s out there and gets better at serving what it now understands it’s going to need creative solutions to head-off some serious problems.

Obviously, I can’t predict the future. But it’s hard for me to imagine Google designed a new format for the SERP and isn’t thinking about its implications much the way I have above. Whether it be the format and functionality Google is using for its COVID-19 SERPs or whether it’s something different – a results page that allows for some sort of user input – seems all but inevitable to me.

Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.

About The Author

Mordy is the head of marketing agency for Rank Ranger, an industry leading all-in-one SEO Company reporting suite. Outside of helping to build the Rank Ranger brand, Mordy spends most of his time working to help educate the SEO Company industry by publishing a constant stream of in-depth research and analysis. You can hear Mordy take up the latest issues facing the SEO Company community on his weekly podcast, The In Search SEO Company Podcast.

Website Design & SEO Delray Beach by DBL07.co

Delray Beach SEO

source http://www.scpie.org/how-covid-19-may-change-the-serp-forever/ source https://scpie.tumblr.com/post/615952967727726592

[scpie]

How COVID-19 may change the SERP forever

What started out as a simple alert panel has evolved into the most prolific set of direct information the Google SERP has ever seen. Google’s on-the-SERP coverage of COVID-19 isn’t only an easy-to-access beast of a data source, it’s also a peek at what could be coming to the SERP… permanently. 

The uniqueness of the COVID-19 SERP 

The SERP Google shows for many queries directly related to COVID-19 (i.e., anything from coronavirus to COVID-19 cure) is unique in two essential ways: 

The amount of raw data being presented. There is just an absurd amount of data that Google presents on these SERPs. Google is showing you a breakdown of the COVID-19 cases in your location (as well as the world at large) as an accent to a global map of the pandemic’s spread. Of course, Google gives you the opportunity to click ahead in order to see a full breakdown of the COVID-19 data shown on the SERP. It’s a testimony to how hard Google can push direct content if it really wanted to. It’s both radically awesome and a bit frightening at the same time. 

The left-hand menu functionality. While the right side of these ‘COVID-19’ SERP contains “knowledge” the left side contains specialty functionality. Here Google gives us a sticky menu (i.e., it follows you as you scroll down the SERP) that serves as a way to delve deeper into various aspects of the pandemic. Clicking on a given option brings up an entire SERP devoted to exploring that particular aspect of COVID-19.

While I could talk about the implications of Google going so deep into offering direct data on the SERP, it’s the functionality at the left side of the page that really caught my attention because I think it solves some of the biggest problems Google faces going forward. 

The COVID-19 SERP functionality solves some of Google’s biggest problems

Personalization is a tricky matter. There’s a lot to balance when trying to highly target a specific user. That’s true for us as marketers and that’s true for Google. Google has long faced issues around personalization. The prime example of this has been the controversy Google has faced in regard to personalization within the search results leading to a filter bubble. November 2020 is not that far off so you can expect the issue and allegations of “biased” results to rear its heads again once the US elections kick into full-gear.

At the same time personalization puts Google on a collision course with another one of its ‘search result aspirations’ – diversity. As a means of effectively targeting its users, Google, more often than not, caters to multiple intents with an offering of a diverse set of results. Hyper-personalization and a strong diversification of the search results are obviously at heads with each other. You simply can’t have both. There’s not enough space on the SERP. You’re talking about showing an effective amount of diversity while strongly targeting a user with just 10 results. That’s damned near impossible.

So how is Google to solve this? With the functionality you see at the left of the page for COVID-19 queries.

Let’s take the two problems I’ve already brought up, the filter bubble and the collision that is personalization and result diversity, add another issue into the mix, and see how the unique functionality of the COVID-19 SERP is the great panacea.

The problem of personalization is solved with user input

The biggest white elephant when discussing personalization within the search results is not the filter bubble nor is it the great battle for diversity vs. personalization. Rather, it’s personalization itself. I’ve long been on a soapbox saying, nay shouting, that the ultimate personalization that Google is after is not possible without user input.

I don’t care how smart Google gets and how great it becomes at offering personalized results, Google will never be able to know what a user in a specific moment is after (which is partly why it cannot abandon result diversity even with advanced personalization). The only way Google can offer the level of personalization it is after is by putting the user in control of the SERP. By letting the user tell Google what they want and by letting Google give that to them.

Now, how do you give the user control over the SERP?

I don’t know, how does a sticky menu at the left of the page that lets the user filter out what they want sound?

Imagine you searched for estate planning. (I recently realized my will is worthless ever since I moved out of the US.) There’s a lot you could mean by this query. Are you looking for information on the financial end? Do you need some tax information? If it’s the latter what state are you in as every state in the US has different laws?

In this instance, Google might look at my past behavior and think that I’m looking for a local lawyer to help me navigate the legalities of my “estate.” Which it does when I run the search (though in my case I have no prior search history):

Suppose, however, that despite my previous searches I really want financial information. In that case, the Local Pack I get is totally irrelevant and now I have to skim the result to pick and choose what I want or think of a more refined search to run and what a drag that is.

Now imagine I had a SERP with a sticky menu at the left of the page that let me see a SERP related to either local lawyers, financial services, etc. With user input, Google can offer me a full set of results that matches my exact intent.

I’ll take this one step further. Not every user has only one intent. How efficient would it be if Google let me toggle back and forth between various menu options so that I can open tabs for results that hit on multiple intents without having to run multiple queries? So if I wanted to look up a local lawyer and read up on some financial tips I could do both with the same search!

Simply, the sticky menu Google has implemented for COVID-19 queries brings a new level of user input to the SERP. That’s huge. 

More space prevents personalization trainwrecks

At this point, you can see how having a sticky menu, like the one seen on the COVID-19 SERP, prevents a collision between personalization and result diversity. The contradiction that is both superb personalization and diversity among the results is mainly a problem because of space. You can’t adequately meet both demands with the limited space a single SERP offers the user.

The sticky side menu functionality lets you breakdown the query by intent. It lets Google energetically target the user on the initial SERP without having to water that level of personalization down with a diverse set of results. Rather, the options within the menu would reflect the intended diversity Google needs to offer.

That is, the sticky menu would allow Google to engage in a topical intent-based segmentation. This could play itself out in a variety of ways. If you search for buy car insurance Google could offer you whatever it thinks is personally relevant on the initial SERP. It could then segment according to intent. 

In this case, I could imagine a side menu that included a tab that read Compare policies where you would see results that compared what’s included in various types of insurance policies. I could also imagine a tab entitled Policy reviews where you could read reviews on the various insurance companies and their policies. If you don’t need to research anything at this juncture then you might click on a tab for Buy policies where all the sites that offer a policy would appear.

I think you get my drift.

Nothing pops filter bubbles like sticky side menus 

Last, but not least, a side menu that sticks gives Google the opportunity it needs to avoid any sort of filter bubble criticism. In such a scenario, Google would not have to directly worry about the results on the SERP further confirming a user’s biases. The side menu would allow Google to go full-on personalization. All Google would need to do is supplement the extreme levels of personalization with a broader set of content that would be accessed via the side menu.

Imagine the worst-case filter bubble scenario, political bias. Even if, hypothetically speaking, a search history slanted towards a particular political party produced results that reeked of confirmation bias, it wouldn’t be a problem. Google could counteract that level of personalization by supplementing perspective via, you guessed it, a sticky side menu!

You might have a set of initial results that are slanted towards a given political perspective. However, Google could easily supplement this with a broader look at the topic via the side menu. In this case, all Google would have to do is insert a tab that read Also in the news much like it does in its multi-carousel News Box on mobile:

It’s an easy solution that not only ensures Google offers a well-balanced look at sensitive topics but simultaneously extends the user’s journey in all-new ways (which is another significant aspect of Google’s mantra).

There you have it, search result objectivity that extends the user’s journey – two birds with one stone!

The multi-faceted SERP is coming (I think)!

The SERP as it is now is antiquated in many ways. The entire construct is one that was designed for a different era of digital content consumption. As Google gets better at understanding what’s out there and gets better at serving what it now understands it’s going to need creative solutions to head-off some serious problems.

Obviously, I can’t predict the future. But it’s hard for me to imagine Google designed a new format for the SERP and isn’t thinking about its implications much the way I have above. Whether it be the format and functionality Google is using for its COVID-19 SERPs or whether it’s something different – a results page that allows for some sort of user input – seems all but inevitable to me.

Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.

About The Author

Mordy is the head of marketing agency for Rank Ranger, an industry leading all-in-one SEO Company reporting suite. Outside of helping to build the Rank Ranger brand, Mordy spends most of his time working to help educate the SEO Company industry by publishing a constant stream of in-depth research and analysis. You can hear Mordy take up the latest issues facing the SEO Company community on his weekly podcast, The In Search SEO Company Podcast.

Website Design & SEO Delray Beach by DBL07.co

Delray Beach SEO

source http://www.scpie.org/how-covid-19-may-change-the-serp-forever/

[gigsoupmusic]

Yoke Lore talks expression and connection through stories - Interview

Adrian Galvin is telling stories of connection as the act Yoke Lore. These tales come to life through his art and music. In three years Galvin has released three EP's and singles, earning millions of streams and even a spot on Taylor Swifts 'Songs Taylor Loves' playlist. His music and the stories in them help the listener find their place in the world. Of this mission Yoke Lore says "I think that is what stories ultimately do for us is they give us orientation in time and space and culture and romance and like phileo duties and in cultural ideas." Yoke Lore is an artist in multiple mediums. The obvious is in his music, with the unique sound and far-reaching lyrics. The singer is also responsible for all of the artwork for his music and merchandise. Each medium complement each other nicely and work together "I know they're separate like drawing is drawing, and music is music, but it all kind of blends together for me after a while." The artistry doesn't stop there, seeing Yoke Lore live you are brought into this world of creativity. First, the songs are incredible live and the energy the singer puts into each song is top-notch. Second, the son of visual artists brings cool visuals of his own with the New York skyline and subway lines as a backdrop while he plays. Last, with a background in dance the artist takes his own experience with his dance company and puts it on stage with a high-energy performance with his banjo that you won't see anywhere else. Yoke Lore is a live act you don't want to miss. I had the chance to sit down and interview Yoke Lore. We talked about the powerful way he uses many forms of expression, his commitment to telling stories of connection, what it is like landing on a Taylor Swift playlist, and more. Read the full interview below. https://youtu.be/kW-hpNniRas Hi, I'm with Yoke Lore before your show here at Urban Lounge. It's sold out with a line down the block which is incredible to see. But I like to start by talking about why I made the request for an interview. Yoke Lore: Yeah sure! So I talked to you about moving to New York on a whim and soon after I moved to New York is when I found your music so a lot of that time as I was connecting to the city your music was the soundtrack behind the scenes. So I can think of different times or certain songs that take me back to Brooklyn. Wooow! No way! That's so cool! No seriously, so being here is really cool. One time I was listening to Beige on a walk home at 2 A.M. and I was just dancing as I did and I turned a corner I didn't see someone and maybe I came across threatening but this guy took a step towards me like he was going to fight and it's a funny memory now. Now it is the sweet memory I have every time I think about it and how your music brought me to that uncontrollable movement on an early morning walk home. That's funny because some of my dancing could also be construed as combative. https://youtu.be/dm7kh8Nw454 (Laughs) Okay, I'm not the only one then. But we differ because I am a terrible dancer and you have a bit of a dance background right? Yeah a little bit. A little bit. I grew up in a very artsy family, I took ballet classes when I was really little. Then kind of like got too cool for it in my teenage years you know what I mean? But then I did other things that required an amount of grace. Like the sports, I chose to play had some kind of connection to dance, at least with the way I played them. What sports did you play? I wrestled which is a big one and all about spatial relationships and weight differentials and stuff. I played tennis which was all these huge broad movements and then I played ultimate frisbee which you're like in the air half the time and again a lot of huge broad movements. So then when I got to college I also started rollerblading. I got really into aggressive skating. I met this kid at a couple of tournaments and we ended up going to Kenyon College together and so freshman year we started skating together. Eventually that kid, his name is Matt he convinced me to take a dance class with him. Then I loved it and we had a great time, and after school, we started a dance company together and performed at like The Kennedy Center, and at a couple of festivals together in Berlin, Paris, and we performed in New York, LA, Chicago, it was a lot of fun. And so you are a drummer, dancer, you've been in a number of bands including a Led Zeppelin cover band, a screamo folk band, and you do a lot with your own artwork. I wanted to ask what form of expression means the most to you, and how do they connect? I think I'd say for me they all are a really necessary piece of the way I move through the world. I know they're separate like drawing is drawing, and music is music, but it all kind of blends together for me after a while. I see it like you know on a multi-cam tv show and they go to camera two and you behind the scenes when they go to camera one and the perspective changes but it is all capturing the same scene. I think that is the best analogy I can come up with to describe how I view expression. If I write a song about something it is one way of moving through an idea if I draw something with something in mind it becomes another perspective from which to see that. But I need all of them. I need to move between them and I don't have complete view until it passes through as many expressions as I can. You mentioned drawing as a way of connection, you do all the drawing for your artwork. Has there ever been a time where you were drawing something and it became an inspiration for a song or another form of expression? Yeah, so there's a piece of art that I drew for the song Chin Up. When I was drawing that I wanted to do something that like... Chin Up is about the idea of forgiveness and that you should forgive everyone all the time, for everything. Because it is not useful to hold onto shit and for me the metaphor of just like raising your head and looking up and not being so mired in your kind of like lower animal self. But to raise the perspective, and raise your vision so you can like see in the heights you know like raise yourself up to your divinity, to your most lofty self. I wanted something that would like keep people up and so I drew this boat is what it is, but it's not explicitly a boat, but it's like something that keeps people afloat. I try to kind of like represent ideas but like I infuse the idea with some other element of it or kind of a facet that people might not immediately think of or associate with the idea. I want it to almost be like a sibling of the song itself and not like an indicator but more like something else that can accompany the whole thought. https://youtu.be/tCmEw5GCRnM Yeah, it comes from a deeper thought and really knowing the song's meaning, I like that. Now Yoke Lore started as a lot of experimentation and now has really took off, which I saw as I walked the block deep line to get in here tonight. What can you tell me about the journey of starting a few years ago to where it is now? I guess have just been following my nose I guess... there's no formula for how to do this and there certainly isn't a right or a wrong way to go about doing this. But for me, like I really want it. I think that I have something to say. Well... it's not I have something to say, that's stupid. It's that things are being said in a certain way and I want to say them differently. I think to say them differently is to really change the nature of those ideas and really make them super valuable for people so they can use art to their own advantage. It shouldn't just be a pleasure for the senses it needs to be able to be used to get somewhere. I think for me I've used it to get somewhere by just wanting it and staying actively honest with myself about how I want to do it. I have also had an incredible group of people around me who have been in it with me the whole time. I feel like if you are honest in your desires and sincere with the amount of work you're willing to put in, you can't fail. I love that, I love that view. I really appreciate your writing and how you compose a song and put it together. The name Yoke Lore I especially love the meaning with yoke like oxen and being connected and lore with stories. What can you tell me about your commitment to telling these stories of connection? Everyone is a little bit lost to a certain extent I think and kind of just bouncing around trying live good lives, trying to be happy. I think something really changing or meaningful is orienting yourself and knowing where you are in time and space. I think it is a really rare skill to have to be able to orient yourself and know where you've just come from, and know exactly where you want to go, know the kind of ground you're standing on. I think a lot of people get depressed or unhappy because of their disorientation. They don't know where they are at, what they're supposed to be doing, or how to get where they need to go. I think that is what stories ultimately do for us is they give us orientation in time and space and culture and romance and like phileo duties and in cultural ideas. They give us an idea of where we are and I think that is paramount to giving people insight into how they can make their lives a little bit better and knowing where they are. https://youtu.be/9VSUSke-fHo So with orienting yourself, where is it you want Yoke Lore to go? I want to be a huge rock star man. At this point I can like support myself and some other people while doing Yoke Lore which is great. I think I just want to do that on a grander scale. There is like a line of people out front tonight and that's awesome and I want to have that like worldwide. I want to have everyone feel like that. I think Yoke Lore is a specific way of looking at something and a pretty detailed and deep way of approaching things, and I want to make Yoke Lore like its own hermeneutic which is like a technique of analysis almost like psychoanalysis was originally termed depth hermeneutics because of diving deep into something and finding a way to analyze it. I want Yoke Lore to be that for people. I want it to be a not just a set of ideas but a set of techniques with which to approach those ideas and like a set of words with which to kind of approach yourself. Because people don't have a lot of great words these days. Our vocabularies are getting constricted and shrunk and our emotional vocabulary is waning for sure. I want to put it back. I wanted to ask, I once interviewed someone that won the TV show The Voice and I tweeted the interview out and I got a big amount of retweets and follows from all these older fans of The Voice. One of your songs got added to Taylor Swifts 'Songs Taylor Loves' playlist. With that experience I've got to ask what the response was like from Swiftie's after that? (Laughs) Yeah, that...that was wild. I quickly got a lot of fifteen-year-old girls following Yoke Lore and that was cool. But you know you also have to know your audience a little bit and speak in a language that people will understand otherwise it's going to go right over their heads. So it definitely forces me to second guess the level of esoteric on what I want to get, but not in a bad way that I have to dumb everything down. I just have to be aware. I want everyone to be able to hear this, I want everyone to be able to use it. In order to do that I have to speak the language of the people I can't just be speaking my own language to myself. It's interesting how something like that changes your approach a little. Yeah totally. Also by the same token, I want to keep this project dynamic and know that some people are going to gravitate to the really lovely romantic songs like Beige, and then there are going to be people that gravitate towards the loud punchy songs like Hold Me Down, Goodpain, or Fake You or something. I want there to be something for everyone. I want to show all sides to my music and my proclivities and I think both the intimacy and the grandiosity have really necessary places there. I want to do it all and give them everything. https://youtu.be/ttKahjcT2M0 Your approach is very aware and calculated and you truly do have a song for everyone. Thank you, I appreciate that. I have a question I ask in every interview it goes differently each time and that's what I love about it. I know you were a drummer and usually, the drummers have a similar answer so I am excited to see your answer. I ask first if you are into karaoke, and if so what your go-to karaoke song is? I fucking hate karaoke. Really? This is why I love this. Is that the thing that drummers always say? Not at all. Usually, drummers like it because they get to be in the front. I fucking hate it. (laughs) I can't do it. Maybe though because I am a drummer that has come up front and I already get that. Karaoke is hard for me because I am always in this awkward position. It's my fucking job I don't want to make fun of this in a bar (laughs). https://youtu.be/g2j0ybI2tBI Okay so rephrase it then, if not karaoke what would be a go-to cover maybe? See that's exciting! Something fun like Michael Jackson maybe. I like all those fun like 80's song like um *sings* "Josie's on a vacation far away" Who is that? Who sings that? All those bands had like one song. (The song he was singing was 'Your Love' by The Outfield) Your most recent single 'Dead Ringer' just came out and what has been what you want people to get from it? The song is about pacing. It is about like my speed and stuff. Dead Ringer is about kind of like I like to move really fast through the world because I believe in progress over perfection and I just believe in like moving to the next thing. It's my instinct with everything to move quickly and with that I kind of worry sometimes in my more reflective moments that I might miss something or someone because I am always moving so fast. So this song is about moving real fast and worrying about what that might leave me with later on and for other people to think a little about their pace and how they use speed and if other people recognize that. There is a new song I'll play tonight called 'Body Parts' and I ask a couple of questions during it like "Do others feel what I feel?" or "Is all my love real?" and I want people to ask themselves these questions as I am asking myself these questions. It's a song about my fears and I hope it will make other people reflect on their own fears. That also makes it sound like super morose and like really sad (laughs) it's not a sad song. It's pretty rousing and catchy but yeah it's about me fearing my own speed. Yeah, that's a pretty deep thought and realization for you to have. Yeah, it's something like I definitely I don't want to miss anything... like I want to... catch them all (laughs). You mentioned playing a new song 'Body Parts' and you are always coming out with new songs and I appreciate that and wanted to thank you for that. No thank you! Thanks for appreciating that. https://youtu.be/u0j9JLJxDfs Along with that new song what is next for you? Yeah like you already mentioned I have Body Parts which I am playing tonight. So I have that one and another song to go with it. Then we have a tour coming up with Bishop Briggs in Europe in December. Dang, that's cool, that's a show I wish I could I see the two of you together. Dude she is so cool. We both played this festival in Vegas and it was so weird and so after our set we busted out back to LA right after and the whole time we were on stage she was tweeting about us that we were like amazing and stuff, we were like an hour down the highway and we saw it and were like "Fuck like shit" so we tweeted her back and we ended up hanging out at Firefly and now have a European tour. I also have a whole new EP coming next year at some point. It takes so much longer for me to get shit out than it does for me to make it. Really? Yeah, I am sitting on like 7 songs right now. I'm just waiting. And does that suck? Is it all about timing where you're waiting to get it out? I mean it is a lot with timing. Like you can't just release shit. You have to have a plan in place, a marketing budget in place, and shows on the docket. There are so many things to go along with it that it definitely takes time and it's how it is. I'll always have stuff on deck. Thank you again Adrian, I had such a connection to your music and so being able to be here and the time has been great. Yeah, absolutely! Thank you for taking the time to come out and doing it. Check out more from Yoke Lore on his website, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Read the full article

[dailyaudiobible]

09/05/2019 DAB Transcript

Ecclesiastes 10:1-12:14, 2 Corinthians 8:1-15, Psalms 49:1-20, Proverbs 22:20-21

Today is the 5th day of September. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It's great to be here with you today as we take another step forward and move ourselves closer to the weekend where we’ll just start another week because our relationship with the Bible is ongoing and we continue to journey through this year. So, we’ve been journeying through the book of Ecclesiastes for the last few days and we’ll continue to do that today, but we will conclude the book of Ecclesiastes today before continuing our journey in second Corinthians. So, we’re reading from the New Living Translation this week. Ecclesiastes chapters 10, 11, and 12 today.

Commentary:

Okay. So, we finished Ecclesiastes today and the meaninglessness of it all. And, like I said when we began this book, it used to be one of my very least favorite parts of the Bible, kind a depressing, kinda cynical, kind of pessimistic, kind of down. Now, I guess over the years I've seen just how brutally honest this book is and for that matter how futile it all is just running, running, running, wondering where were going, wondering how this is all gonna work out. So, yeah Ecclesiastes can seem kinda pessimistic, but it's kind helpful to understand that Solomon is writing from a subtractive perspective. Like, we haven’t ever really encountered this before. That is would be called apophatic, right? So, when we usually declare something, we declare what it is, like we affirm it. That’s cataphatic, instead of saying what it's not, which is what we do a lot. Like, a lot of times when we’re looking at our lives and trying to define it, which is really impossible, it’s so multi-faceted…if God is so big, we are so small, but we are still so big to ourselves, like, we are more complicated than we can figure out. And, so, a lot of times we’re defining our identity by what we’re not, right? “I don't say that. I don't do this. I don't believe that etc. etc.” So, we’re used to both…we’re used in both kinds of speaking but we here’s Solomon looking back over his life. And when we met Solomon, he had just become king, hid he’s father David had died. Like, we went through his whole reign and how he brought everybody, brought ancient Israel to its apex. But we’re kind of over that hill now, we’re in the back half of life. Solomon is facing the end of his life now and he’s looking back over all the pursuits and the different challenges that he took and the different injustices that he was able to bear witness to, the pleasures that he found. And it's interesting because getting to the end of it all he looks back and sees that it was mostly wasted useless activity. So, he had applied all of his energy in the pursuits of beauty and wisdom and he’d searched all over the world for the answers to the unanswerable questions, but according to Ecclesiastes, he still couldn't find what he was looking for. So, he took a sobering look at everything and started subtracting away from life, all that he found meaningless, only to find out that that was most everything and concluded that if we are not fundamentally aware of the sovereignty of God nothing does make any sense. So, what do we take away as we prepare to move forward into the next book of the Bible? What do we take away from all of this from…we basically have been sitting with Solomon, one of the wisest people to ever live, and we've been given his take on things? So, we would consider that valuable if we were sitting with the wise old sage in a café today. But we have this. What do we take away from somebody who's done it all and then stepped back and saw that it didn't mean as much as he thought? That’s found as the book of Ecclesiastes ends. Here’s what he says. “That's the whole story. Here now is my final conclusion. Fear of God and obey his commands for this is everyone's duty. God will judge us for everything we do, including every secret thing, whether good or bad.” So, Solomon is concluding basically what the whole Bible comes to. Give your heart in surrender and reverence to God. Offer yourself faithfully and loyally in worship. Give yourself to relationship with your heavenly Father. Honor God and do what he says to do. This is what everybody's supposed to do and the only way to find actual meaning. So, let's sit with that today. It is a fact, we don't like to mention it, but it is a fact that every day that we live is one day closer to our death. And Solomon's looking at it squarely instead of just denying it all because he's using it as a reference point that everybody has. And, so, he’s weighing out the space between here and there and looking back at all of the time that was wasted and deciding, this next stretch is perhaps the final stretch. And with that kind of perspective you can then go, “okay. I can turn around and look at my past and find a lot of meaningless activity. I can look forward toward my future understanding that it ends in my death and I can decide now, is the space between here and there going to be meaningful or meaningless.” And then we can use the book of Ecclesiastes to at least be a guide in helping us avoid chasing the wind.

Prayer:

Father, we invite You into that all that was spoken in the book of Ecclesiastes because it brings us into some stark realities, into some reflection, and into some contemplation about what the future may look like. And, so, we invite You into all of it and we acknowledge it is all meaningless without You. There is no point. So, come Holy Spirit and may we walk with You, may we never walk away we pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website, and that is home base, and certainly where you find out what's going on around here.

I mentioned yesterday about a couple of new things that are in the Daily Audio Bible Shop that we are excited about.

One of them is our first ever portable coffee solution. We added…we added an item to our Windfarm coffee and tea line and it's a steeped coffee version that I've been enjoying quite a bit. It’s very very convenient. And like, I don't need to say the whole thing again, but we've been looking for years for something that's bot gonna get stale. Like, coffee does get stale and it's really bitter and that’s when you can tell, you know, it’s gone bad. And, you know, how do you treat a portable solution that’s gonna last? And, so, we did find, finally, this solution where a…sort of like the material that creates drip coffee, like those coffee filters, you put coffee in that and that make it like a teabag and then you can steep your coffee and its nitro sealed, so the oxygen is pushed out of it so it can’t deteriorate quickly. So, it stays fresh. And we’re excited about that. I’m using them all the time. I mentioned I used them in Israel last year and that was sort of what got the ball rolling because now you can have a good cup coffee anywhere and everywhere that you might travel and it's just really convenient to have the office or around the house. So, those are available in the Daily Audio Bible Shop in the Coffee and Tea section.

And then we also released our Daily Audio Bible Journal 2.0 and that can be found in the Lifestyle section at the Daily Audio Bible Shop. And we’re big into journaling, we talked about that, and we always will be. It’s really…really important actually, I think, at least for me to write things down in my own hand. And it just helps me to process in a way that is much, I don’t know, more holistic than just typing it on a word processor or in some kind of journal. And, I mean, obviously we’re not against digital journals. We have one in the Daily Audio Bible app and it’s a great place to write down thoughts, especially as the Scriptures speak but in terms of just can journaling out your days, the story of your life, it’s a beautiful thing to be able to write some of that down in your own hand, not only for your own review, but for future generations. And, so we’ve been working hard on continuing to improve our journey. I mean, a journal’s a journal, but this is really good paper, really good ink, really receives pen and pencil well. We worked on the binding so it would lay flat better. Yeah. So, we just made some improvements to it. I love it. This is what I write in most every day. So, the Daily Audio Bible Journal 2.0 is available in the Shop as well. So, check those out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There is a link on the homepage and my heart is full of gratitude each and every day that we exist, all of these years, day by day seven days a week. We could’ve never done this alone. We've done this together as a community and I thank you profoundly for your partnership. So, the link is on the homepage. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or, if you prefer, the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And as always, if you have a prayer request or comment, there is a Hotline you can press that’s right in the app, the little red button up in the header, that is your hotline no matter where you are in the world, or if you prefer the phone, you can dial 877-942-4253.

And that's it for today. I'm Brian I love you and I'll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

[beyondthetemples-ooc]

“Fanfic writer asks”: Skipping the “asks” and doing the answers!

I just saw this and I’m too excited to wait for someone to see this, decide what to ask, and I wanted to answer all of them, anyways.

Some of these are fill-in-the-blanks for askers, so I can’t answer them. But if anyone wants elaboration, or wants to know a specific something in regards to a particular story, or character: Absolutely, feel free to send me some!

Questions taken from here: http://criminal-minds-fanfiction.tumblr.com/post/172926526725

--

1) How old were you when you first starting writing fanfiction? Oh geez, we practically need a time machine for that. I was only 11 or 12! I started "writing" fanfics with my action figures (guest-starring other childhood toys) as far back as I can remember. Literally, from the time I was 5-8 and obsessed with Pokemon and Yoshi's Story and Powerpuff Girls, I was playing out stories and adventures, from beginning to end, imagining backstories for why they're there, what they were doing, what motivated them. They even came with continuity (from one play-session to the next)!

As for actually writing it down, though... That also started Very Early. I think I must've been 11 or 12? The earliest one I ever dated was 2005, anyway. They were descriptive, illustrating actions to display emotions, and characterization was... well, it Sure Existed (even if it varied from "So Wrong", to Definitely the Right Remark).

But ever since the moment I touched a pen to my first fanfic notebook, it was about my OCs (and Raven, because, surprise surprise, she was my favorite to write about). I've had plot since I first took those Crayola twistables to paper to illustrate the story in my head, the first story I ever Had a Solid Plot For (that is, Mystery Sickness-- which is being rewritten with Actual Explanations, re: Why Dove Made Her Feel So Shitty in the first place): that was also in 2005. (Fun fact: it was originally in Poorly-Drawn Comic Form). The actual "novelization" went through to 2007.

2) What fandoms do you write for and do you have a particular favourite if you write for more than one? As my fanfiction.net profile will tell you: "Author has written 32 stories for Teen Titans, Pokémon, and Ruby Gloom." - The Ruby Gloom fanfic was abandoned, unfortunately. (It was a direct and shameless self-insert, that got abandoned because, quite frankly, I had no idea what to do with it. Maybe I should put it up for adoption at this point...) - A Work of Magic (my Pokemon fanfic, with related bios/etc) gets written for very rarely, because the inspiration to do so is rare and sporadic, and more tied to a Specific Scene I want to write, than where I left off in the story. @w@;; - A Steven Universe fanfic is in the works, though I'm struggling to flesh it out.. due to the Aforementioned Preoccupation with The FAVE MOMENTS, moreso than the backstory and movement through those moments. @D;;

And then, you have the Teen Titans stories. You know, the ones with Dove, and Kary, and Srentha, and Leyla will eventually be there. My most precious, dearly beloved, absolutely irreplaceable OCs. My TT story folder has about 100 files, which belong to about 30 full-length stories. (And that's not counting the oneshots, like Heart to Heart, which is still one of the best things I've ever written.) There are also a few poems here and there, particularly Dove's Prophecy (of self-fulfillment, really), and stories illustrating Dove's childhood, her mother/grandmother's past, Srentha's childhood... There's just Quite A Lot! I've been doing this, writing them, for 12+ years.~ And my fandomatic obsession for Teen Titans has never dulled, quieted, or been forgotten. So yes, I definitely do have a "particular" favorite. I may prefer exploring their world through my OCs, but damn, is it more FUN than any other world to explore!

3) Do you prefer writing OC’s or reader inserts? Explain your answer. Ah, you can probably tell it's OCs by now. At least, MY OC's. Someone else's OCs, well, I tried that once, they were going to commission me. But I never got it finished. (I just didn't have quite the same connection. And I didn't know the canon; that can't have helped.) But character I *do* get to know, like my girlfriend's OCs in our collaborations (or characters I got to know so well through playing together that I just totally shamelessly adopted, specifically: Kary), I do enjoy writing for~ There's just something so incredibly special in knowing that you, solely, are responsible for their growth, their development, and their well-being. It's a bit like having kids, without the screaming. (At least, without them screaming in your ear. Dove and Kary have both done their fair share of screaming, come to think of it...)

( (( Although, to be fair: I've never tried writing a writer insert. I doubt anyone would actually WANT to endure the stories I put my characters through... ;P )) )

4) What is your favourite genre to write for? Fantasy? Action/Adventure? It's hard to say, because I actually write for a HUGE variety of Genres. But I guess my favorite, if I can encompass all of them under this one umbrella, would have to be Hurt/Comfort.

5) If you had to choose a favourite out of all of your multi chaptered stories, which would it be and why? DAMN IT, DON'T DO THIS TO ME.

Gods, that's hard! Basically ALL of my stories are multi-chaptered... Well, it's definitely one of my Teen Titans stories. DDD has definitely been the most challenging to write, the most fulfilling to finish chapters on, and the most pivotal point in Dove's life, so it will always hold a special place in my heart. Writing for Azar in "The Final Journey" and Dove taking her first unintended steps into heroism has been so personally touching for me, and it does so much good for Dove, and especially her relationship with the team, that it's just so, so special to watch. Something Special About Srentha is probably my most epic multi-faceted story, and the narrative timeline (handling two very distinct and separate struggles in totally separate places) is really challenging me to grow as a writer. "Continuum Wars" is going to be the grandest scale of struggle and magic, so I'm really especially excited to start figuring it out. It is just so, so HARD to decide on ONE; they're all so special, and I love watching my style evolve with each story, and more than anything, watching my characters come out of these situations alive. lD;;

6) If you had to delete one of your stories and never speak of it again, which would it be and why? you mean the Teen Titans and Pokemon crossover where Dove brings home a Misdreavus? been there, done that. Honestly though, every single one of my stories has its place in my characters' lives, and is important for continuity. And personal growth. And I've honestly never been ashamed of something I've written.

(If you travel far back enough in my fanfic archive, you WILL find a really old character bio for Dove, which I completely revamped, because I didn't learn until later how to frame her without comparing her to Raven, even though she's always been a very different and independently-extant character. Also, the bits I learned about Being Kept A Secret and her grandmother's exile were Nearly Learned around 2010, 2012...)

7) When is your preferred time to write? Whenever the inspiration bug bites! ASAP!! But as for general adding and editing, it's fairly late at night, usually~ Sometimes afternoons. Usually an hour or more after eating, and especially when it's cool and quiet in the room.

8) Where do you take your inspiration from? Canon, personal experience (my personal struggles, my search for my identity, and my struggle to define myself), and sometimes even my own spirituality. (Wild shit goes down when you get into astral exploration, let me TELL you!)

9) In your xxx fic, what’s your favourite scene that you wrote? Can I just... use my personal favorite? (If you have any questions about a particular fic, or universe, or point in a character's life that didn't happen in the fics, let me know and I'll gladly answer!)

- Holy GOD, the climax scene of Dove's Dark Discovery! It takes place entirely in Dove's mindscape, while Dove's power is maxed out, and you've got a very powerful telepath and a TREMENDOUSLY power empath battling within a mindscape that has been slowly devastated over the past few months, and it's just this absolute EPIC culmination of their powers and, to a degree, even the connection they'd been forging since Dove came. Dove seriously oversteps some boundaries, Raven nearly kills Dove by accident, it's seriously crazy stuff.

Bonus: Way back in, like, probably 2008 or 2009, when titansgo.net was still around: I had asked my all-time favorite fanfic author for critique on the climax. His advice, to make it "three times as long and nine times the punch", absolutely inspired me to reach WAY higher with their fight, and once I realized what kind of mind-bending maelstrom shenanigans can go down in a MINDSCAPE, the scene fairly EXPLODED with potential!

And I especially like the fact that, including the revisions after his (entirely justified) advice: This scene has gone through like nine different incarnations. And my favorite part: It was originally inspired by a battle in the Teen Titans videogame! I think my little sister was playing White Raven (who my mind always read as Being Dove, because White Cape and Magic Powers), I was playing Raven, and the battle took place in "Nevermore", Raven's mindscape. It was actually a good fight. And I was fucking AMPED... But also emotionally RAVAGED, because "holy shit, Raven fighting Dove... in a mindscape......" And the scene happened like two days later. (In middle school. Honors Spanish class. As a note in the margins of my assignment notebook!)

Gods, guys. That scene is just so incredibly important, and it has come oh, so very far~

10) In your xxx fic, why did you decide to end it like that? Did you have an alternative ending in mind? I'm gonna answer one that I really like the ending of, but feel free to ask for others. Like, maybe one I've actually published, that you've actually read? 8F But honestly: Spellbound pt. II. I haven't published it yet... but it ends in absolute tragedy. The reason is twofold: First off, I knew Dove and Srentha were end-game, so although Dove was falling pretty deep into love, I couldn't have him hanging around... 8F But also because I wanted to illustrate the strength of sacrificial redemption. (I don't want to give too much away, because... well, that's the ENDING. But it's heart-wrenching and I can only hope I've done it justice.)

Other faves include: Srentha having heart-issues at the end of Something Special (because it's the Very First Symptom that something is going to be Dreadfully Wrong with him in the sequel), DDD ending with Dove absolutely traumatized and seriously hurt (because the following story is going to be all about her learning to Take Action on her pain, instead of hiding herself away), and A Work of Magic ending with everyone thinking Mistress had died trying to save her family... but the ending is, and the epicness kind of speaks for itself in this: "You can't kill a ghost."

11) Have you ever amended a story due to criticisms you’ve received after posting it? You mean like the way I completely rewrote Dove's character bio 6 years later, in response to all the accusations of her being a Mary Sue? Despite literally nothing (but more specific illustration) changing in the way I wrote her? 8F Other than that, absolutely not! I mean, if someone made a valid point I would. But nobody can tell me how to write my OCs, you know?

12) Who is your favourite character to write for? Why? My OCs. But you probably mean canon characters... and that easily comes down to Raven. She's just so layered, working with very inward, introspective mechanics, before she takes her action, usually in a very well-thought out direction, or sometimes an INSANELY emotional outburst, and either way, it tends to be Very Important, Poignant, and Make a Difference in the scene. I relate to her; I idolized her for the longest time; I know exactly how to write the struggle between not being able to express your emotions, and being true to yourself, because I've lived it. I'm an empath, so writing her empathic powers is always sort of therapeutic, because outside of my mirrorbook, I'd never gotten to EXPLORE that aspect of myself before. Her wit is hard to capture sometimes, I'll admit, but, I mean, I was making the nurses at the hospital laugh all the way up to my procedure, armed with nothing but my dry remarks. I think I'm up to the challenge.

13) Who is your least favourite character to write for? Why? Beast... Boy...... I'm sorry, I really am. I've just never been able to relate to him, or understand how his mind works (if it even works at all?), or write him into any of the plots-- outside of, like, trying to cheer Dove up, which is iconic and appreciated on Dove's end. But otherwise? What do I even DO with him? His sense of humor is just... so lowkey annoying that I sincerely cannot fathom why it's So Funny, let alone make it up for him. (Thankfully, at least the comics come in handy for exploring Why he's Like That, which has honestly helped a lot more than anything the show ever did. All but ONE of his episodes, were... pretty crack-tastic. And that just doesn't mesh well with my stories that are Trying to Deal with a Serious Issue Here.)

14) How did you come up with the title for the xxx? - You can ask about multiple stories. Mostly, they're descriptive of the Most Iconic Thing, or Most Pivotal Plot Point, in the story! "Something Special About Srentha". "Dove's Dark Discovery". "Growing Up Demon: Leyla's Story". "Mystery Sickness", being renamed "Soul Sickness" for poetic value, but still keeping that iconic "Sickness" thing, while also making it More Relevant to Raven Specifically. The exception is probably "Unforeseen and Unforesaken". Yes, it's misspelled, I did that on purpose for visual balance in the title. It's weird. I know. But it's Intentional. (Still highly important things though, because it illustrates both Dove's arrival, and what happens once she's there, being unforeseen. And Dove absolutely hardcore valuing the team because they don't Forsake her.)

15) If you write OC’s, how do you decide on their names? Bold of you to assume I have this kind of CONTROL over them. Seriously, the way my writing works isn't so much "I get to decide what they do", and more like "huh, this Resonates. That must be a Thing... Let's try to seek out all the relevant details on why it happened, how they reacted, and how it ends!" It's like detective work. And this is absolutely best illustrated by trying to find Srentha's name. Because holy frick. What kinda name is that. (Turns out, it's literally in another language. 8F It means "flight", by the way! Onomatopoeia for the sound wings make.) Anyways, I literally found out one day that, "Dove tried to keep her pregnancy hidden... That must mean she had a kid. With someone." And thus began the Classic RHS Storytelling Search for "who's the guy?" And immediately I knew his name began with an "S". So I tried a bunch of names. I figured it was feminine-sounding, for some reason, thus I realized it ended in "-a". I knew it had two beats. Finding the "-ntha" was the easy part, it was figuring out how the heck to parse "Sren" into the right sounds and number of beats that was the REAL challenge. It wasn't until I remembered "Sri Lanka" exists that I figured out his entire name. (It's pronounced without the English "sh", though - it's just "Sren". As he says, "like Wren, with a Sss.")

16) How did you come up with the idea for xxx? Mostly, they came to me when I was thinking about my characters' lives. Except The Final Journey, that one was based on "the crystals" my girlfriend illustrated Dove having in her room, and I kinda just took that entire concept and made it Azarathean and RAN with it!~ (If you're curious about any particular story, let me know!)

17) Post a line from a WIP that you’re working on. "I killed six people. Do I deserve to die?" hello, this is your daily reminder that DDD absolutely Destroys Dove's self-image. But because it's So IMPORTANT and uhh, it was too Dark for me to leave that there, I also want to quote Raven's responses, which include "We all have our dark days," and "I do know that pain, that guilt. I know it better than anyone...[but] Solitary confinement won't cure it...[and] we don't want to see you leave." And also, "You won't be able to help anyone if you destroy yourself first."

18) Do you have any abandoned WIP’s? What made you abandon them? Oh, stars. Let's see... The first "wip" I abandoned was a character I named "gayla", not knowing "gay" was actually a word, first of all, but her concept turned out to actually be part of Srentha's story, and honestly I should've figured out that "heh, same name as Raven's nursemaid" wasn't a thing. {lD (Whose name was actually Galya, by the way. I didn't realize that mistake for like, five years.)

I only so very RARELY abandon an actual story, though. I know there have been a couple of Moment Concepts I've lost, due to not writing them down; that honestly hurts much worse. ;; But there's the aforementioned Pokemon+TT crossover, where Dove brings home a Misdreavus by accident. That was purely self-indulgent, and it just didn't fit with the timeline, so I decided to stop writing that AU. It was really more that I wanted to focus on The Other Stories, and only had 3 short chapters planned. (The one where the little ghost gets herself stuck in Raven's mind had so much potential! But I didn't know how to write Raven's emoticlones in without Raven becoming aware of it. And now that I think about it, that could've been what got Dove to send her back.. But, eh, I've long lost the story file for it, and long LONG lost interest.)

If anyone tells you "A Work of Magic" is abandoned, they're wRONG, I'm just really, really caught up in Dove's struggle with DDD and Srentha and Steven Universe (even if I'm not really writing that fic most of the time), so my inspiration to write that story with As Much Lighthearted Fun Silliness as it deserves is seriously impaired. =w=;;

Oh, but I did kind of abandon the story from Sieara's point of view, because honestly, I'd rather just explore her through Dove. (That little bird gets plenty of epic spotlight moments; she even channels Azar's spirit at one point. Or two. ;P ) But mostly, I abandoned it because I didn't want to write about a bird being too old to reproduce, getting close to death, and then dying, anymore? (It was going to be about her noticing Dove spending more time with Srentha, Srentha's bird dying, and Sieara meeting Dove's daughter, and dying shortly after. But I... don't know, I didn't want to write that Angst without a Resolution.) I wrote that story for Exactly 1 Day, and then decided to stick to writing about her through Dove.

19) Are there any stories that you’ve written that you’d really love to do a sequel to? I fully intend to do sequels to all of them, thank you very much.~ (At least for the TT fics, all of them are connected in some way. A Work of Magic has both a sequel and a prequel planned. And the Steven Universe fic is really only planned for One Conflict, I really don't want to explore it much beyond that singular unit of Canon Divergence.)

20) Are there any stories that you wished you’d ended differently? That would be akin to lying, with the way my stories and my characters go.

21) Tell me about another writer(s) who you admire? What is it about them that you admire? thechroniclerjon, holy stars and envy batman. This is one writer who knows how to build a conflict, write magic in a way that's both Believable, and Relatable, and Awesome, and interweaves different plot threads into one rather EPIC confrontation. Obviously I couldn't take the element of religion into my stories, being so totally personally disconnected from it. (spirituality? ABSOLUTELY. Let me explore aLL the Azarathean feels!) But like. Those descriptions. The conversations. The build-up. The plot-twists. The raw emotion. I aspire, very much, to someday, in my own way, find a style that translates as much Excitement and Tension and Delight as his stories manage to convey.

Also, the author of Learning to Breathe Underwater, because that story had amazingly spot-on characterization, included so many canon elements (despite being Canon Divergent) while still having its own (very well escalated, incredibly well-executed!) plot! I write for the Teen Titans universe far more than Steven Universe, but I really admire their way of including basically every single character, giving them plenty of attention and growth, and giving a lot of them development in the process. I don't know if I could do that, but someday, I'd like to try.

22) Do you have a story that you look back on and cringe when you reread it? The old Mystery Sickness. Like, the first version. It was, ah... originally what I now call an "emvent", and if you know what that is, great; if not, I don't want to go into details, but it's a story that helps me process my phobia? Which, geez, poor Raven okay, but what's really "cringe" about it is the way I narrated it in first-person. XD Weird metaphors, she had a Detective Noir tone for some reason, and let's just say there's a reason I never shared any of the panels. (I kept it secret because of the phobia. Equally as horrifying, I kept it in words because of the pictures.)

23) Do you prefer listening to music when you’re writing or do you need silence? Silence, but I prefer gentle background noises I'm used to. (Like birds fluttering around, gentle aquarium filters and the water rippling, wind in the trees, etc. It's an ADD thing; lowkey background noise, if kept at a distance, helps me focus.)

24) How do you feel about writing smutty scenes? Eh. I have the Occasional Mood for it... like, once a year. 8P But generally, I'm just Not Interested. Sure, Dove and Srentha have... done some things that would entertain fans of the genre. And actually, some things that get borderline supernatural. But mostly, I'd just really rather be writing other things.

25) Have you ever cried whilst writing a story? Oh, stars. Yes... Yes. Dove's Dark Discovery. (I drew on... an awful lot of personal experiences, and none of them were good.) Plus, her guilt and self-flagellating... let's just say it's a major Depression Mood. Also noteworthy: I cried writing the Death Sequence and farewell letter in Spellbound pt. II. I've cried for Dove's loss of Azarath, and her mother. I've cried for the things Dove and Srentha tell Leyla when she's really struggling (because, dear gods, if only I'd heard those words when I was a kid)... It doesn't happen often. But sometimes, it just... gets overwhelming.

26) Which part of your xxx fic was the hardest to write? ASK ABOUT ANY OF THEm, because DEAR GODS, there are PLENTY. But the hardest of all was DDD. I struggled with describing how/why an Extremely Gentle, Timid Pacifist was suddenly Losing Herself to Internal Evil, and doing Terrible Things. I struggled to capture the IMMENSITY of the mindscape battle, both in how these two Incredibly Powerful Demi-demons were unleashing their powers, and also in how much of a personal toll it takes on BOTH of them afterwards. And now, I'm struggling to find the words for Dove in the aftermath, because... Gods, there's just so much turmoil and emotion. It echoes an awful lot of Seriously Dangerous Depression Thoughts, right down to suicide ideation and lashing out at the people she loves because she doesn't think she deserves them, and aren't they all fools for loving her. All I can say is thank god Raven's such a realistic beacon of hope, because (much like she did for me, come to think of it) she's able to help Dove battle those thoughts with reminders, wisdom, and hope.

27) Do you make a general outline for your stories or do you just go with the flow? This one depends entirely on the story. Generally, it's really quite sporadic and incidental. I write out the scenes as they come to me (usually WAY out of order), and then figure out how they all fit together. Sometimes I don't even realize two scenes are in the same story at first! Or how they're related. I tend to write the beginning, several scenes from When Things Are Very Serious, then go back to fill in the blanks. A lot of times the climax happens either before I know how to start the story, before I know what led up to it, or before I know how it ends. (DDD began with the climax scene. Heart to Heart began with realizing Srentha had a heart attack as a child.)

And then other times, it begins with a vague concept, and I start writing right at the beginning. (Something Special was first written at the beginning, with Srentha performing a spell. I didn't know what it was going to do, just that it was Relevant. A Work of Magic started with me in the Pokemon world wanting a Misdreavus, and developed into a full-team adventure from there. Unforeseen and Unforesaken, or rather "Unforeseen Surprises" in its original form, starting with the very moment Dove showed up, was written as I went along, knowing which points I wanted to hit before the story was over, but writing the scenes as they came to me.)

A Work of Magic has a lot of travel scenes, and moments that take place in specific areas, with Specific Species, so I had to plan out a timeline from region to region, to make sure they weren't in Sinnoh one day, then encountering a Unova legendary, and battling a psychic type in a Kanto forest the very next day, you know? Then there's DDD, which is such a gradually PROGRESSING story that I definitely had to outline some of the chapters, too. Making sure Dove's gradually growing powers were highlighted, and she wasn't going from Total Telekinetic Failure to Suddenly Really Strong and Breaking The Entire Gym Room in the next scene. That sort of thing.

Either way, it's usually As I'm Writing that I notice the connections, the causes rooted in previous stories or scenes, and the Effects These Incidents Have as I'm writing it out. I always start with An Incident and A Concept, because I wouldn't have a story to write without it. But where it becomes Actual Scenes, and what order I write them, depends entirely on the order I discover them.

28) What is something you wished you’d known before you started posting fanfiction? What a Mary Sue was supposed to be, and that Dove isn't what they claimed. That criticism that so many reviewers threw onto her bio wasn't at all helpful, I didn't know what that meant, let alone how to fix it, and I didn't know how to demonstrate that Dove wasn't, in fact, "entirely like Raven", because she had her own powerset, her own history, and her own personality. To be fair, a lot of the Highlights on Their Differences happen in later stories, and it's the initial shock of "why the frick is wearing those clothes and using that mantra", so of course on first impression, it's like. "Raven? similarities???" But... I don't know, it's just so very OBVIOUS to me that, unless we're talking about Timid!Raven (the emoticlone), their differences are so VAST. And I spent a lot of time, WASTED a lot of time, trying to kill the assumption. It really wasn't worth it.

29) Do you have a story that you feel doesn’t get as much love as you’d like? DOVE'S! DARK! DISCOVERY!!! I nearly BROKE myself (both of time AND emotion) writing this thing! I understand that Some Friends can't Do Sadism, but like. This story is 250k words long, I've dumped a GREAT DEAL of my heart and soul into it, and Dove's plight seriously needs to be recognized to understand her growth moving forward. But! There! Are! So! Few! People! READING IT. The story has like 20 reviews on fanfic.net, BUT THE CLIMAX HASn'T GOTTEN ANY yet? ???? Please recognize the metaphorical blood, literal sweat, and literal tears I put into this. Gods. Yes I wish it got WAY more love.

30) In contrast to 29 is there a story which gets lots of love which you kinda eye roll at? That poem from middle school, "The Raven and the Dove"? It's a neat poem, sure. Kind, of, a unique concept? But it's not very well explored, it just goes "here are their differences. They're opposites. But they get along." No explanation of how or why. (That's all in the fanfics.) It's not nearly as rhythmic as Dove's Prophecy, it's not clever, it's not plot-twisty, and as far as poetic cred goes, I don't think it's anything special. ? ?? I mean, somebody found it online, and contacted me via email, and it nearly got PUBLISHED. (But I would've had to pay them to include it in their book, which I wasn't down with.) I just don't understand, literally at all, why so many people really LIKE it.

31) Send me a fic recommendation and I’ll post it for my followers to see! (The asker is to send the rec not the answerer) SEND ME FICS, I WILL READ.

32) Are any of your characters based on real people? Nah, they're all based on themselves.

33) What’s the biggest compliment you’ve gotten? My favorite fanfic author read, and then complimented, the (second or third version of?) the climax scene in DDD.~

34) What’s the harshest criticism you’ve gotten? Mostly just comments on Dove's first bio that went, "She's such a Mary Sue, burn it and scrap her entirely to start fresh"? (Thank *all* the gods that I didn't take that advice, because she's incredible and deserves to exist in her own right.)

35) Do you share your story ideas with anyone else or do you keep them close to your chest? Honestly? The first thing I do is WRITE about it. Unless I'm prompted to, or rambling about something that has me Inordinately Emotional, I don't really share them.

36) Can you give us a spoiler for one of your WIP’s? Don't worry, outside of Azarath's canonical demise, I only ever write somebody ACTUALLY dying once. But she comes back, because that's what she does, apparently.

37) What’s the funniest story you’ve written? Bold of you to assume I write comedy! But seriously, probably Srentha's debut story. When he discovers pizza, he assumes pepperoni isn't edible (a fair assumption, really, but he's vegetarian anyways). When he tries the cheese, his reaction is just so DELIGHTFUL and warm; he laughs so hard he's literally crying. The things he says and does when he's sugar-high are hysterical. He's just so exuberant and energetic, absolutely positive, he really brings a load of smiles to the table, and both I and Dove irrevocably love him for it.

38) If you could collab with any other writer on here, who would it be? (Perhaps this question will inspire some collabs!) If you’re shy, don’t tag the blog, just name it. I don't know if I have an answer for this. I don't really read a lot of Tumblr fanfics. I've already collaborated with Pix in RPs, my girlfriend and I have already collaborated on stories for both Kary and Pokemon, and the author of The Chronicler Saga implemented one of my scenes into his stories. What more can I really ask for?

I mean, if anyone WANTs to collaborate, just let me know, and I'd love to work something out.

39) Do you prefer first, second or third person? Third person, multiple, and preferably omniscient (or damn close to it)! Exploring everyone's inner workings is Exactly My Style. (And just more fun for me to write.)

40) Do people know you write fanfiction? Well, I only talk about it, like, once every three hours or so. (/sarcasm)

41) What’s you favourite minor character you’ve written? Sieara? Alerina? As for actual Canon Characters, I'm having a righteously wonderful time characterizing Azar. Lapis is fun and interesting to work with, but she's so full of emotional "tides" that it's really hard for me to write for her.

42) Song fic - What made you decide to use the song xxx for xxx. (I have only ever done songfics on papers, and wound up not needing the songs after all. They were all Evanescence, of course.)

43) Has anyone ever guessed the plot twist of one of your fics before you posted it? Not that I know of! Someone once guessed Dove was Raven's cousin, on Unforeseen+Unforesaken, and I haven't written the climax (when Raven realizes Dove is Trigon's child) yet. That's about the closest anyone has come.

44) What is the last line you wrote? Oh, stars, let me check. (This is where Tracking Changes comes in handy. ;P ) In Nothing Good Lasts Forever, the story that's (possibly going to be renamed "Even in Death", when Raven takes Dove back to Azarath for closure): This may or may not be polished before publishing. But this takes place immediately after Raven pulls Dove from a flashback.

"There's a lot you have to deal with. Your mind has been seriously damaged by what you've been through. I wonder..." And she trailed off there, hesitating, considering the concept before she dared give it voice.

Dove kept looking up at her, confused and seeming entirely absorbed in her analysis. It was so true. Tearing her apart, every time she remembered... The nightmares and flashbacks wouldn't let her forget it.

45) What spurs you on during the writing process? My own excitement, curiosity, and even desperation to learn what happens next! And a general sense of lowkey affectionate "tribute", like I'm the only person with these peoples' stories in my head, and they deserve to have their stories told. And also the hope that, maybe, someone, somewhere, will read the story, and if just ONE person feels their heart soothed or their struggle validated by my writings, then I've done a good thing, and that's all I really want.

46) I really loved your xxx fic. If you were ever to do a sequel, what do you think might happen in it? (Someone ask me, because EVERYTHING has sequels, and if you want to know about it, just Ask!)

47) Here’s a fic title - insert a made up title. What would this story be about? DO IT??

48) What’s your favourite trope to write? I'm... not sure, entirely, but probably "bullshit [insert genre here] magic".

49) Can you remember the first fic you read? What was it about? I remember one OF the first fics I ever read, because for about 7, 8 years, I was SCOURING fanfiction.net to find it again. It was about Raven having terrible visions, Azarath being destroyed, and Robin feeling her pain through their connection, but thinking it was heartburn. And then a group of people dropped in, took Raven away (on a spaceships? Though hyperspace???). And they were going to rebuild Azarath. And I think Robin had just discovered Raven was gone, before the story ended. Oh, and they spelled Azarath like "Azerath". That's all I can remember, but I really do wish I'd known what happened, because that story had me absolutely HOOKED. (But alas, I didn't have an account at the time, and I was reading it at the computer lab.)

50) If you could write only angst, fluff or smut for the rest of your writing life, which would it be and why? Ohh, this one's hard. I'd drop smut like it's hot (haha, get it?). But seriously, I'm a 99%-sex-repulsed aroace, and I've only ever written like 5 half-done smut scenes. Imagined a Fair Few more, but they don't keep my interest for the long multi-hour process of editing that comprises my writing process.

This probably means "romantic fluff" though, right? I mean, I HAVE to write angst (because let's be real, without Angst I wouldn't have much of a story, since all of my stories are Driven By Characters Issues, WAY moreso than external events). But I really think the REAL beauty of my characters is how they go through that angst, and COME OUT with each others' support. I don't know how to write angst without someone being supported (i.e. "Hurt/Comfort", really), and I don't know how to write fluff without something Heavy bringing it on.

Secretshipping (Dove+Srentha) is equal parts angst and fluff, because honestly Angst is in Dove's Job Description, and Srentha is so light-hearted and goofy and silly that he balances it out (and Dove has some goof in her, and Srentha has some rare moments of angst, and it's how they interact and balance out and HELP each other through it that really brings them to LIFE together). Kary's whole characterization is because The Angst seriously fucked up her psyche, but scenes between her and Dove (and Yo-yo!), even her future husband, can get seriously silly and fluffy. Leyla's real growth and development comes from Realizing that the World is Not Like her Sheltered Life. (And how she doesn't want to expose her parents to Her Angst.) But it's also the fluffy deep softness and sincerity she and her parents share that gets her through these realizations. So like... Angst and fluff go hand-in-hand for me? I wouldn't be able to write one without the other.

[ddrkirbyisq]

A friend of mine recently showed me a prompt about core values that I thought might be an interesting exercise to go through myself.  Here's the prompt: Across cultures, religions and time itself, people have admired and aspired to the same universal values--among them integrity, generosity, courage, humility, compassion, loyalty, perseverance--while rejecting their opposites--deceit, greed, cowardice, arrogance, callousness, disloyalty and sloth. To begin to explore more deeply the values that are most compelling to you, we suggest that you set aside uninterrupted time to respond to the following questions: - Jump ahead to the end of your life. What are the three most important lessons you have learned and why are they so critical? - Think of someone that you deeply respect. Describe three qualities in this person that you most admire. - Who are you at your best? - What one-sentence inscription would you like to see on your tombstone that would capture who you really were in your life? The end goal of all of this was to sift through and realize what "compelling values" you hold, but let's first sort through these bulleted questions, as they are not only related but also interesting in their own right. - Jump ahead to the end of your life. What are the three most important lessons you have learned and why are they so critical? Already a tough one to answer!  I think the first and most obvious one that pops into my mind is one that I feel like I've been explaining and talking about with others a bit more nowadays -- that of my relationship with the past (of course, you know it had to be something to do with the past).  Specifically, what I learned through several life experiences -- that a lot of the time I cannot move forward in life if I feel that I am leaving something behind.  And moreover, the fact that I *need* to pay my respects to the past and feel connected to it.  This is something that I've struggled with my whole life because somehow the idea of change and loss is really hard for me to cope with, and I think things became a lot easier for me once I realized that even though nothing lasts forever and I will always lose things, it is still necessary for me to hang onto rememberances and try to retain what I can, as a coping mechanism.  And that to do otherwise casuses me great emotional distress.  This is basically the Kiki lesson, as she is the presence in my life that I associate most strongly with this question.  You could also call it the "Star" lesson. I guess second would be that it's important to put yourself in healthy environments and good situations.  More specifically, that you don't have to (and shouldn't) subject yourself to suffering and sacrifices in order to do things that are worthwhile.  This one is the Marching Band lesson, basically.  I think growing up there were many many times when I was put into situations that were really toxic to my well-being, including but not limited to "bonding communication time" when I was at my most introverted and withdrawn states, being super super stressed out about band, and in general just dealing with a whole host of people who were not supportive to me.  I think with Marching Band in particular it was such a meaningful and important experience to me that I was totally willing to put myself through a lot for the sake of it.  However, later on in life it became apparent to me that there are many other things in life that are just as good without being toxic at the same time.  Basically, this lesson boils down into "treat myself right" and don't be in unhealthy relationships. A third one?  I guess I would say just in general how to try to sympathize with others and not just see everything from my own point of view.  Basically...human connection.  I was terrible at this because I was always a super loner and really introverted as well not to mention I had a bit of a pride issue and stubborn streak.  So I think I was really judgmental and bad at seeing things from other points of view or even just respecting other people's different opinions or ways of being.  Part of this was also my upbringing because the examples that I grew up with did exactly this so I'm glad that I was able to realize that it is actually a big problem. - Think of someone that you deeply respect. Describe three qualities in this person that you most admire. All these multi-part questions!  I don't think this will be a single person but rather, spread across multiple people, as a more general thing. I think one is the ability to be an "anchor" (no, not in the West Coast Swing sense...), or rather, that quality in people where no matter how many years go by it's still the same thing.  That seeing them again almost brings a sense of nostalgia, because they still are who they are.  Of course everyone has this to some extent -- it's not very often that people change in a very core way.  But certain people really make me feel it very clearly, and it feels super refreshing and actually gives me a really hopeful feeling, that something can stay so untouched amidst a world of such sweeping changes. I think another is open-mindedness.  I think seeing people embrace new things and create meaningful life experience because of it is really inspiring to me, in large part because I prioritize comfort and routine so new things are really deprioritized in my life...so when I see other people having such success with them it sometimes really makes me think and make sure that I'm not just being complacent.  New things (Ne) is my weak point and I'm really bad at it but I'll never grow as a person without it. Also, empathy and being able to understand, connect with, and help others.  As I mentioned above I am not really good at this but I actually value it a lot and I think it's really really inspiring when I see certain people being a positive presence in others' lives. - Who are you at your best? Comfortable and at peace!  I am living in my routine and doing the things that I am always doing.  Everything is "in its place" and because I feel so comfortable and "in my element" I actually feel more willing to try one or two new things.  Basically I am at my best when I feel like I am secure in my comfort zone and that is the time when I am willing to see what is outside of it. At my best I think I am proactive in reaching out to people, 100% dependable, always following through with everything that I planned, and taking care of everything that needs to be taken care of.  I am reaching towards achievements and goals while at the same time being happy.  I am "in the zone". - What one-sentence inscription would you like to see on your tombstone that would capture who you really were in your life? I donno...something about the past.  Or something artsy that has to do with the fact that I have finally "moved on" from life.  Like, "Always" was what you said. Except... you also didn't stay. You, who longed to be with the stars. No...that's probably bad to put as an epitaph, huh. xD  Yeah, probably just something about the past.  But you know, as my best friend pointed out recently -- when I do have a tombstone, it will mean that I am part of the past, too.  I will finally be a part of that "past" that I am always looking back on.  If my soul still exists at that time, I feel that my entire perspective about everything will change so much.  But I guess that would be true for anyone. To bring this back to core values, I think it's no surprise that the thing I value most in general is dependability, persistence, and loyalty -- or more specifically, a resistance to change.  Since a large part of my life seems to be centered around trying to keep things the same while coping with necessary change, it's extremely important for me to be able to stay the same as I once was, and to have people around who also would not change as well.  I think it is this value that drives many facets of my personality.  For example, one reason I seem to have such a diverse set of hobbies (music, games, dance, writing, art, blogging, calligraphy...) is because I don't want to drop any of them.  A lot of the time when I talk about being "true to myself" or "being Timmie" what I actually mean is staying consistent with what I have done in the past.  Not just because the past is important in an abstract sense, but because what I was in the past was =known to be good= and thus I begin to question any deviations from it. The second thing that I seem to value is comfort.  This usually goes hand in hand with being consistent because for the most part what is consistent *is* what is comfortable.  But in general, making sure that one is taking care of themselves and putting themselves in good situations, as well as making time to stop and smell the roses. A large part of my life actually revolves around finding a balance between persistence and comfort.  As I mentioned earlier the two are often synonymous, but oftentimes persistence dictates that I make sacrifices because keeping up a pattern can be difficult given varying circumstances -- after all, that is the whole reason why keeping patterns is hard in the first place! For the most part I try to defer to remaining consistent, but I have definitely gotten into trouble with this and have needed to take a step back and recenter myself, especially when my persistence goals are unrealistic (writing Christmas letters to every single person I've ever written to???).  This is one of the reasons I value my best friend's company so much; because she helps me be more balanced in terms of letting go of my consistency in favor of comfort. On the flip side, though, if I don't adhere to consistency enough it really does come back to haunt me.  I think this comes up in two main ways.  The most obvious one is that if I don't feel connected enough to the past, I just start thinking about it more and more and eventually become depressed and have to lose myself in it for awhile.  I think at its core this is just because I look backwards to the past to make sure that I am going in the right direction at the present.  If I find that I have strayed from the course drastically, it's really unsettling for me because I won't be able to stop looking at the path that I was on previously and remembering how good it was, and I'll really question everything I'm doing currently and why I gave up all that I had before.  The second way that consistency comes back to bite me is if I haven't been keeping up with a given thing -- like for example if I haven't worked on any game dev in a week or two, maybe because I'm feeling lazy or something.  When that happens it keeps on bugging me and if it continues you'll often hear me write about it in my blog or letters over and over again that I haven't done it in a while and need to get back to it.  Even when it's not something that I "have to do", it still feels like a responsibility to me because I don't want to drop anything. And then I guess my third core value would be empathy and caring for others.  This is more of an aspiration than something that I actively feel like I have, but I think that when my first two values of consistency and comfort are in a good balance, that is usually when I start thinking more about my connections with others in a more truly empathetic way (or at least attempting to).  I think by far and large I actually defer to consistency in maintaining most of my friendships -- which basically means writing letters and messaging them with the same sort of small talk initiation all the time, for better or worse.  But I think there comes a point when I need to be a little more proactive and focused in order to really connect with people. So there you have it: my three values are consistency, comfort, and empathy, in that order (not sure if those three words are the exact correct ones, but you get the idea).  In terms of MBTI, the first two are definitely my Si (introverted sensing) at work (consistency more than comfort) and empathy is my Fe (extraverted feeling).  Ti (introverted thinking) didn't really make an appearance at all, but Ne (extraverted intuition) actually did come up, because I mentioned I admire open-mindedness.  I don't think that's a core value for myself though.